


Pigments of Words

by ThiefofStealth



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, hank is too cute in this wtf lmao, marine-biologist!Connor, mermaid au, merman au, mershark!hank, mershark!hank au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2019-10-12 17:44:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 45,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17472068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThiefofStealth/pseuds/ThiefofStealth
Summary: Connor is desperate. He tried to boycott Cyber Fauna, but he failed miserably and lost his job. Five years later, he's still trying to stop Cyber Fauna, but he didn't have enough evidences to bring the corporation down.Until a seal came up to him when he's swimming in the sea and led him to a harpooned merman at the beach.





	1. Brown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beautiful and shiny pair of brown orbs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Brown_ **   
>  _/broun/_   
>  _adjective_   
>  _of a color produced by mixing red, yellow, and blue, as of dark wood or rich soil._
> 
> _**Brown** , the color of earth, wood, stone, wholesomeness, reliability, elegance, security, healing, home, grounding, foundations, stability, warmth, and honesty, is a natural, neutral color that is typically associated with the seasons of fall and winter._

Pain.

Sharp pain on his back.

The impact on his back caused it.

It hurts.

It **_hurts_**.

Something sprouted on his back after the impact.

**_It hurts._ **

It causes pain.

He doesn’t like it.

He wants it **_out_**.

He cries out in pain, sharp chirps was heard throughout the blue water as he tries to swim away.

He can hear sounds from out water.

Loud, sharp, triumph, **_dangerous._**

_**He doesn't like it.** _

He quickly swims away, the sounds becoming louder as the result. He can’t go fast; the thing on his back is slowing him down.

Fear.

Fear fills him and choking him. Just like when he accidentally stranded to the land after he fought that brown, hairy creature.

The very, very dry land.

The land that filled with creatures with many tails.

The land that filled with sinister things.

The land that stole his mate.

The land that is very, very brown and dry.

He swims and swims. Keep on swimming until he can’t see properly and keep on turning dark, just like when the bright and big light is eaten by the blue water.

Something smooth slides to his chest.

Friend.

He slowly wraps his arms around his friend, finally able to rest his tail and eyelids as his friend swims away with him in tow.

Suddenly, he’s out of the blue water.

He quickly opens his eyelids.

Brown.

It’s the dry land.

He wants to go back into the blue water.

But it hurts.

**_It hurts._ **

He weakly chirps. He cannot move. He’s out of the blue water. He’s slowly drying. He cannot breathe properly. It’s cold. It hurts. It hurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts ** _ithurtsithurtsITHURTS—_**

Something is touching him.

It’s cold and warm and smooth.

Hurts.

**_Hurts._ **

**_DANGER._ **

He lunged out, clamping his jaw around something warm and wet and smooth, arms wrapping around the thing. The thing twitches and he tries to chew on it, but he can’t.

What if it’s his friend? He can’t hurt his friend.

He coughs and let his grips from the thing weaken. He can’t breathe properly. He’s drying up. He can’t move his body freely. His back hurts. His chest is constricting his breaths and it hurts.

He weakly chirps as he feels two long and smooth things are wrapping around him.

It’s not his friend.

Slowly, the thing pulls him into the blue water and soaking him. He tries to move, but he cannot. His back still hurts. He chirps out in pain. He wants the thing on his back to be gone, and he wants the pain to be gone too.

Something is on the back of his head.

A web-less hand.

A creature with many tails.

The land creature with many tails.

He chirps out weakly again. He can feel that the land creature is moving in the water with him in tow. He can also feel something smooth is sliding under his tail, also moving along with him.

It’s his friend.

Then the land creature pulled him out from the blue water, back to the land. The land touches his tail. The land creature grunts as the arms around him tighten. The land creature keeps pulling him, sometimes stopping to adjust him in the creature’s arms with a grunt before they both moved again.

Then he can feel that the movement is not as smooth as before, along with bumpy hard stone bumping his tail. He chirps out in slight pain as the movement is jostling the thing on his back, but not hard enough to be off his back.

_ “It’s okay! Don’t worry. I’m going to help you. I just need to patch you up, and then you’ll be okay. I may not a doctor, but I've help many water creatures as best as I can. Hopefully, you’re like them, as you’re half fish. And as strong as a human on dealing with this kind of thing.” _

Calm and funny sound reaches his ears. It belongs to the land creature. Somehow, it calms him down.

_ “There’s a pool of water too for you! So you won’t dry out, as fishes can’t really stay on land without water. Usually I use it to tend wounded marine animals too. That way, I can check and tend on them with ease until they’re well enough to be back into the wild.” _

He chirps softly as the land is turns into smooth land and not bumpy or rough like before. It’s warm for a moment before it slowly becomes cold.

_ “Boof!” _

_ “Down, Sumo. We got a wounded here.” _

A new sound reaches his ears. He’s slowly opens his eyes and sees a many tailed and very hairy land creature. He chirps softly, eyes never leaving the strange and hairy land creature as the other land creature slowly lay him down on the cold and white land on his stomach.

He turns his head, looking at his surroundings slowly. He can see the hairy land creature sitting beside him, tongue lolled out while looking at him. He looks around again and sees blue water right across him.

He’s about to approach the blue water, but the sharp pain on his back stops him for moving further and the previous land creature is approaching him with something in their hands.

_ “Alright, let’s see that wound of yours.”  _

_ “It looks like the tip of the harpoon is arrow like. I can see the sharp ends of the ‘angle’ cuts through the tissue. Your breathing is labored, which means it got your left lung. But you seem a pretty normal breather despite having your lung punctured by a harpoon. And it didn't get your ribs, just slips through the gaps.”  _

_ “The wound is a clean cut, meaning I can just pull out the harpoon without breaking anymore tissues and making you loses more blood. I don’t have a bag of merman’s blood, and I think no one in this world would even have one.” _

He grunts in surprise when water pours over him, but it’s not unpleasant. He lets out a small sigh and a chirp as he’s not going to dry out for another while. The land creature put a hand on his back gently in return, slowly moving it to his back fin.

_ “Now, it’s time to pull this harpoon out. Knowing from your reactions and pained…chirps, you can feel pain for sure. I can put you under anesthesia, but I don’t know if it will be harmful on you or not, so I think I have to do it in a cruel way. This is going to hurt, but it will be very brief. And I think I will stitch it close, so it heals better. You’ll feel pinches, but that’s all, so don’t worry.” _

And just as fast as it came, the thing on his back was yanked out.

And it hurts.

He lets out loud screech and pained grunts as he clenches and unclenches his fingers. He can feel water starts to fill up behind his closed eyelids. It hurts. It hurts! **IT HURTS!**

_ “I-I’m sorry, but it’s the only way! I’m really sorry!” _

He growls angrily in return, but the warm and smooth hand of the land creature moving on his fin is calming him down.

Along with the funny sounds the land creature keep letting out as he feels sharp but small pain on his back that he let out small chirps.

_ “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ll do it fast, please bear with it for a moment, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” _

It sounds…shaky and scared.

Does the land creature feel scared?

He lets out small, questioning chirps to the land creature.

_ “It’s alright. It’s over already. I’ll just put bandage over it and latex bandage seal so it won’t get wet when you swim. I hope you’re not allergic to latex.” _

And just like that, it’s all stops.

_ “Come on, I’ll help you to the pool.” _

The land creature gently have him in their arms again, the other hairy land creature is following them towards the blue water. The creature slowly lay him down, and he immediately jumps into the blue water.

Oh.

It’s different water.

It’s the green water.

He swims, but gets blocked by smooth rock. He turns and another smooth rock blocks his path. He chirps in annoyance before he decides to go up and give the land creature a piece of his mind.

_ “Oh, you’re back. How are you holding up with the water? You can still breathe right? It’s not sea water, as it’s been awhile since the pool was used to put injured sea animals. I hope you don’t mind.” _

Brown.

Warm, big brown.

The land creature has brown hair and eyes, and two dots on their cheek.

The creature is smiling, warmly, and there are waves on the forehead.

The hair is flopping down on their forehead, and their hand tries to pull it back, but it stubbornly flopped back forward.

_ “Oh, are you alright? You’ve been staring at me for a while now.” _

He chirps softly in return. The land creature in front of him is letting out nice rumbling and happy sound with big smile. He chirps again as he moves his tail side to side, chest filled with something warm.

_ “For such a big guy, you sure have high chirps. It’s so cute.” _

He tilts his head a bit. The land creature keeps on letting out funny sounds. They look happy, that’s for sure.

_ “Here, come sit up here on the edge. You must be hungry, so luckily, I still have fresh minnows for you to eat. My friend gave me a whole bucket this morning, but I don’t know how to cook it, so I left it in the fridge. I hope you don’t mind.” _

He chirps in return as he smells food. The land creature sits and pats beside them with food in their arm. So he pulls himself up from the water and sat down beside the land creature. The other hairy land creature approaches him, smelling him. He returns the gesture and he sneezes when the hair tickles his nose.

_ “Sumo, come!” _

The hairy creature approaches the land creature after they called it. Then they gave him something with food inside.

_ “Here you go. You can eat them all if you can. I already divided the actual amount into two and put the rest back in the fridge, so it won’t be too much for you.” _

He immediately takes it and slowly eats the food. Oh, it’s cold, but it’s still good. He just realizes that he’s starving, but he’s still feeling weak and can’t move freely, so he eats it slowly. He chirps out happily as he eats the food, his tail moving in the water.

_ “Good to know that you’re happy after what happened.” _

He turns his head as he chews on his food, looking straight at the land creature’s brown eyes. He takes one food and offers it to them, chirps softly at them.

_ “Oh no, it’s alright. I don’t eat raw fish.” _

The land creature shakes their head. Oh, they don’t want it. That’s alright, more food for him then.

He continues his feast, silently looking around the place he’s currently resides in. It’s bright and he can see what’s outside. He can see the big, bright light in the blue air. He also can see the blue water, but it looks far away. He looks around again as he saw the land creature moves away to somewhere, leaving him with the hairy creature.

The hairy creature approaches him and sits down beside him, its’ tongue lolled out and panting out breaths to him as it looks at him with droopy eyes. Dark brown eyes look back at him.

He chirps at the hairy creature. It lets out a gentle whine as it pushes its face to his cheek and licks him. He chirps in surprise. He put his webbed hand on its hairy head and moves it slowly, feeling up the hair. It feels soft and nice. And it’s brown, many shades of brown on the hair.

It’s different from the other land creature.

This brown and full-bodied hairy land creature, and that brown haired land creature.

They’re brown.

But he feels…safe, and it’s nice.

Maybe…maybe not all brown is bad.

Maybe this time, he can take a rest.


	2. Coffee and Cinnamon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter the 'Coffee' and the 'Cinnamon' of the Arkay family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_cof·fee_ **   
>  _/ˈkôfē,ˈkäfē/_   
>  _noun_   
>  _a hot drink made from the roasted and ground seeds (coffee beans) of a tropical shrub._
> 
> _**Coffee** , a dark brown powder with a strong flavor and smell that is made by crushing coffee beans, or a hot drink made from this powder._
> 
> _**cin·na·mon** _   
>  _/ˈsinəmən/_   
>  _noun_   
>  _a reddish- or yellowish-brown color aromatic spice made from the peeled, dried, and rolled bark of a Southeast Asian tree._
> 
> _**Cinnamon** , the hard outing of a tropical tree, or a brown powder made from this, used as a spice to give a particular taste to food, especially sweet food._

Connor needs to contact Markus.

Connor quickens his steps with the bloody harpoon in tow, fingers grips around it in anger. He’s grateful that he can save that merman’s life. That merman is lucky that it’s not a whale harpoon, because if it’s the whale harpoon, he’s not going to make it. Despite the obvious inability to understand closely what’s happening around him and communicate it out loud, that merman is pretty well behaved.

Connor can see it clearly.

The fear.

The dull and traumatized look in his blue eyes.

The eyes of one that has seen plentiful events in his life.

The eyes of the lost ones.

The eyes that used to be in his and his brothers eyes for a really long time.

He stops in his track as he brought his free hand to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose to calm himself down. No, he can’t get distracted now. Markus needs to know about this before ‘Cyber Fauna’ does more damage on this rare marine life species. They already did it once to that poor mermaid, and then that merman got another deadly point of their real intentions. He left the corporation because of that, and he won’t let them do it more than twice.

As he reaches his study room, he turns on his laptop. He puts the bloody harpoon on the study desk as he opens one of the drawers to take out a file. He puts it next to the harpoon as he sits down and puts the password in, ‘memetwink42069’.

He still needs to change the password his brothers put as a joke a month ago, but he’s too busy with work and just got a day off today. He can’t stop working, not when Cyber Fauna is still out there experimenting on animals other than white mice and hunting for merfolks for the sake of ‘science’.

“Mroow.”

“Good afternoon, Cookie. Have you eaten your meal?” Connor asks as the American Curl cat walks into the room, curling around his leg. She meows back and jumps into his lap as Connor dials up Markus’ number and put it into video call. The dial tone goes on for a few times before Markus’ face showed up on the screen.

_[“Hello, Connor. Is there something that happens?”]_

“Yes, Markus. I apologize for disturbing your day off.” Connor immediately replies in slight shame for disturbing his dear friend and superior’s day off, “It’s just, I just saved a merman that got harpooned by Cyber Fauna—“

_[“Wait. Did you say ‘merman’? Where did you find him?”]_

“I found him at the beach. He was harpooned on his back and he was barely holding on when I first encounter him,” Connor says as he grabs the bloody harpoon and shows it to Markus, “Its Cyber Fauna, Markus. This is their identifier for their tools.” He continues as he points his index finger on the blue triangle.

_[“So they did it again.”]_

“Yes.” Markus brought his hand to his chin, eyebrows knitted close as he starts to think while Connor put his hands on Cookie’s fur to decrease his anxiety and hide his trembling hands.

_[“How’s the merman, Connor?”]_

“He’s well enough last time I saw him around a few minutes ago. I managed to stich close the wound and gave him a small bucket of minnows you sent this morning. He seemed to be happy enough after the storm passed. He even chirps at me in various voice tones.” Connor explains.

_[“Chirps?”]_

“Yes,” Connor nods, “it seems like merfolk communicates in a primitive way, or more animal like. But they seem to be able to understand some gestures for a form of communication. Just then, he offered me a minnow, but I refused and shook my head. He seemed to understand it and just shrugged and ate it.” He explains. He can see the intelligent glint in the merman’s blue eyes, just like a dolphin and other animals with high intelligences, but it also clouded with innocence and despair of a man.

What a contradicting sides in the very same eyes that belongs to one merman.

_[“Connor.”]_

“Yes, Markus?”

_[“Do you mind to take care of the merman first? Then we’ll think about Cyber Fauna more later.”]_

“…What do you have in mind, Markus?” Connor asks as he straightens his back. He knows that look in Markus’ heterochromic eyes. The fiery look in those blue-green eyes. The look where he talks as his superior, not just his dear friend.

_[“You said that the merman seems intelligent enough to understand gestures, and he communicates to you in a primitive way. I was thinking that, what if, you teach him how to communicate in English? Like, teach him in a very simple way, like teaching a growing and learning child. And after he can speak English, he can be our number one source to deal with Cyber Fauna. Like a witness against Cyber Fauna.”]_

That’s…a pretty valid idea actually.

_[“And you can also learn more about merfolk this way.”]_

“…But I’m not Cyber Fauna, Markus.” Connor replies firmly and Markus lets out a small laugh in return.

_[“Who said that you’re them? Connor, I’ve known you since we’re in the university. You won’t do anything that will harm anyone around you. You’re too selfless and stubborn, which is a pretty bad combination, if you ask me. Your brothers even said so.”]_

Connor stays silent at Markus’ statement. Markus is right, in every way. He’s too selfless and stubborn, he knows that too and he won’t deny it. He’s been like that ever since he remembers it. And his brothers said that it got worst since their parents’ deaths and have to be the actual big brother in the household.

He lets out a long sigh as he leans back to the study chair while Markus let out a soft chuckle.

_[“If you’re worried about work, I’m sure the others won’t mind. After all, you really need a vacation too. Tell me Connor, when was the last time you go out to enjoy something or have a date?”]_

“Markus!” Connor’s outbursts result in Markus laughing at his blushing and flustered face. He grumbles in embarrassment as Cookie meows at him, as if agreeing with Markus’ words.

_[“Markus? Who are you talking to?”]_

_[“Oh Simon. I’m just talking to Connor about him needing to have an actual date to distract him from work.”]_

“Hello, Simon. I’m sorry for taking Markus’ time from you,” Connor apologizes as Simon’s face shows up as Markus moves aside for a bit to give Simon a space, “I was just reporting to Markus about work related things. We talked about it for a moment before Markus changed the topic to my dating life.” He continues in slight embarrassment and shoots an annoyed expression to his superior, who just shrugs in amusement.

_[“Well, you seem to need some good dates, Connor.”]_

“Simon, not you too!”

_[“Heh, sorry, but it’s true.”]_

_[“In any case, I’ll give you time to consider my suggestion until Monday. Take care and we’ll see you on Monday, Connor.”]_

And just like that, the call ends.

Connor lets out a long sigh as he picks Cookie up and put her on his head so he can bury his face to her furry stomach, where she just meows calmly and let the human do whatever to calm down. Connor slowly breathes in the fragrance of cat shampoo as he thinks over about Markus’ suggestion. It’s not a bad suggestion, actually. Just like Markus said, he’s been busy with work that he doesn’t really have a time for going out to enjoy a day off other than sleeping in all day or swim into the sea for more work related.

Maybe he does need an actual day off…

“Should I really accept Markus’ suggestion, Cookie? But I don’t want to impose him more than I already did in the past…” Connor asks as he puts the cat back to his lap. Cookie meows as a reply and bumps her head into his hand, calm and sharp eyes staring at him telling him to ‘just do it already’. He pets her for a while before he decides to take a shower before checking on the merman again. He hopes Sumo didn’t cause any problem, but it’s doubtful as Sumo is a well-behaved dog and friendly to newcomers.

And his brothers are coming for the week too.

…

**_His brothers._ **

“Connooorr—oh there you are.”

“C-Caleb—Woah!” Connor spins around so fast that his legs tangles over each other and he falls backward to the floor onto his butt. He groans in pain as Caleb laughs at his clumsiness while Collin calmly helps him up.

“Are you alright, Connor?” Collin asks as he helps Connor up, icy blue eyes looking at him up and down in concern.

“I’m okay. Thanks, Collin.” Connor replies with a sheepish and embarrassed smile. This is bad. He completely forgot that his brothers are coming home for the month. The tradition of going back home starts when Collin said that he was going to apply to Police Academy to follow his dream job while Caleb decides that he was going to a good Law school in a different state.

Connor never left his hometown and the family house, but he’s okay with it as his dream university is in his hometown already.

“Caleb, can you please change my laptop’s password to a normal one please?” Connor says with an exasperated expression as he turns to look at Caleb.

“Why? It’s funny!” Caleb replied, his wavy, cinnamon colored tuft of hair moves as he shrugs and balancing on the heels of his feet before he sweeps his hair to the left from his eye, “Anyway, where’s Sumo? Usually he immediately showed up to us for pets.” He asks curiously as he looks around.

“Maybe he’s sleeping.” Collin replies as he picks Cookie up to his arms as the cat approaches the triplets with a meow and flicks his coffee colored hair away a bit with a hand.

“I’ll go look for him. I’ll be back soon!” Connor says as he walks towards the pool area with hurried steps, while both Caleb and Collin just look at Connor’s disappearing form with slight confusion.

This is bad.

What if his brothers found out about the merman? And they freaked out and maybe post it on their social media or tell their friends?? Or their presence will make the merman uncomfortable and he stresses out and dies???

No, calm down, Connor. Everything’s gonna be alright. Caleb and Collin won’t do that. Despite of them being mischievous little brothers, they’re your baby brothers and they’re good men. You have to trust those two. Don’t let your overthinking and anxiety lie to you, Connor. You’re better than that.

Connor breathes in and out for a moment before he enters the pool area. There, he manages to see Sumo’s big and furry oaf lazing around on the floor near the pool, but the merman is nowhere to be seen. He approaches the pool and lets out a breath he unconsciously held in when he saw the merman’s figure is lying at the bottom of the pool, along with the fish bucket in his arms.

He peers in closer to the water and lets out a breathy chuckle. The merman is actually sleeping, curling at the bottom of the pool while hugging the fish bucket like a teddy bear. The merman’s silver hair moves in the water very calmly and hypnotizing. So hypnotizing that he almost forgets his intention on coming here.

“Sumo, come! Caleb and Collin are here, and they miss you. Come on, big boy!” Connor calls and Sumo stands up, stretching out with a big yawn before he follows Connor back into the house. Connor glances back to the pool area, thinking about the merman, but he decides that he’ll check on him again later after dinner.

“I brought him.” Connor announces and Caleb immediately leaps out to pet Sumo, who’s just happily lay down on the floor with his stomach on display and Caleb lay down as well to put his head to Sumo’s head.

“This,” Caleb brought up his arms dramatically, “is heaven.” He finishes with a dopey smile happily.

“I’m still not gonna let you bring Sumo, you know. I adopted him first.” Connor says in endearment as he sits down on the floor and pets Sumo too.

“I knoooow. I wanna adopt a dog too, but Rupert says no because ‘dogs hunt birds’.” Caleb replies with air-quote and a roll of his eyes.

“You’re still with him?” Collin asks as he also joins the other two with Cookie in his arms.

“Yeah, unfortunately.” Caleb answers, “I’m thinking of breaking up with him by adopting a dog and tell him in the face that I choose the dog more than him because he’s an asshole prick that thinks dogs are vicious and disgusting.” He continues and laughs in a very cruel way. Both Connor and Collin looked at each other with a look.

“What about you, Collin? How’s Gavin?” Connor asks curiously. Last time Collin brought Gavin along in this family meeting, both of Collin and Gavin tend to argue with each other over small things, but they make up really fast and everything’s good after that. Connor can see that both of them are smitten to each other, so he thinks that everything’s okay between the two.

“…He’s great. He was sorry that he can’t go though, as he’s in the middle of undercover mission and his team infiltrates the place tonight.” Collin answers softly. Despite his usual calm expression, both Connor and Caleb can see how his hands are trembling while stroking Cookie’s fur.

“Don’t worry, Collin. I’m sure he’ll be alright.” Connor assures him with a warm smile and a pat on his shoulder.

“Yeah, Gavin’s a bad bitch, no one can kill him.” Caleb says in amusement and Collin snorts at that.

“Yeah, I know. He said that he’ll call me after it’s all over and come over tomorrow.” Collin agrees with a soft smile, his icy blue eyes twinkling in hope and endearment. Both Connor and Caleb smile at the soft expression, thinking of how the youngest of the triplets looked so cute and young despite having the most apparent ‘resting bitch’ face on daily since they’re teenagers.

“How about you, Connor?” Collin immediately asks, his expression returns to his usual default face and Connor flinched when his dating life was brought up, “Got anyone in mind yet?” he adds and Connor just stays silent as he looks at anywhere but his brothers’ eyes.

“…Connor, don’t tell me you still haven’t got yourself a new date.” Caleb guesses with a disbelief look and Connor hangs his head low in shame before he nods subtly and Caleb groans at that. “Lemme guess, again. Your ex broken off with you through text, again, and you’re too busy with work against your former workplace, again.” Connor nods, fingers threading into Sumo’s long fur with a small pout on his face and red face in shame while Caleb groans out loudly at that and sits up to face Connor.

“I told you that you gotta go somewhere else other than this shithole to find a nice person to be your significant other, Connor. This is the sixth time already that you got broken off through a simple text by the same people that live in this shithole for life like you.” Collin says in concern and Connor groans as he buries his face into Sumo’s fur.

“I told you to use that dating app, Con. The chance of you getting a date from neighborhood towns is around 89%, you know.” Caleb adds and Connor sits back up after a moment with troubled face.

“…I know, but I can’t drive for two hours just to have a simple date when I work for 10 hours for six days in a week and only to cancel it when the traffic is not on my side. I can’t disappoint them like that. They might be really looking forward on the date! And I can’t really sacrifice my weekend for recuperating my body from work for a date where I can be cranky or even more tired because I’m not socially active like you two.” Connor replies guiltily, looking down while picking his nails anxiously.

“…Can’t argue with the fact that your crankiness will turn you from a puppy eyed sweetheart to a rabid wolf, so you have a nice argument there.” Caleb agrees with a firm nod and crosses his arms, ignoring Connor’s offended look and a cute pout. Gosh, his older brother is too cute for his own good. “But still. I can see that you’re getting a bit stressed out, bro. When was the last time you hang out with your coworkers after work? Like, with Markus, Simon, North, and Josh?” He asks Connor, only to receive an even guiltier look from Connor that he facepalms at his older brother’s zero social skills.

“Connor, I’m very concerned about you. You’ve been like this since we parted ways eight years ago,” Collin finally quips up with a very concerned look on his face, with knitted close brows and a frown, “It’s just…you were doing your best to make us happy when mom and dad died, Connie. And when everything had settled down and it’s time for you to get the happiness, you didn’t really reach for it.” He finishes and Connor nods at that.

“Con, promise us to settle down a bit to find your happiness, okay? When you found it, give us a call and we’ll fly right over to celebrate it, got it?” Caleb asks with a smile.

“Got it.”

“Triplets bro hug?” Collin asks, spreading out his arms wide with a smile and both Caleb and Connor grin and the three hug each other as best as they can in an awkward stance before they let go and laugh while both Sumo and Cookie contribute with a bark and meow.

“Welp. Now that we’re done with the sappiness, wanna go to the town and grab something for dinner?” Caleb asks as he stands up and stretches out, bones popping out and he groans out in bliss, “Oh that felt great.” He adds softly.

“Let’s go to that seafood restaurant near the docks. I only miss that seafood restaurant’s food and the sea itself.” Collin agrees as he stands up and puts Cookie down gently, who immediately curled up near Sumo.

“Sure thing. You guys already put your luggage to your rooms, right?”

“Sure did, bro. Where were you anyway when we first came? We called for you, you know. I was afraid that you got kidnapped or something.” Caleb asks with a raised brow.

“Oh. Uhh…I got something important to report to Markus, so maybe that’s why I didn’t hear or realized you guys are here already.” Connor replies as he grabs his car and house keys along with his jacket, flustered about the fact that he was so invested with the merman and Markus’ suggestion that even the usual once a month tradition slips his mind.

“Work again? What, another injured animal?” Collin asks and Connor silently curses in mind at his brother’s detective intuition.

“Ooh! What kind of animal this time? What happened to it?” Caleb asks in interest as the three of them walk out to Connor’s car.

“…He’s a shark. And he got harpooned, by Cyber Fauna too.” Connor answers with a growl and both brothers reply with a small ‘Ahh’ in understanding.

“Wait. A shark? What kind of shark is he? Don’t tell me he’s the Great White.” Caleb asks as he grabs the car key from Connor’s hand and sits down in the driver’s seat while Collin sits at the passenger seat and Connor at the backseat.

“No, no. He’s not a Great White.” Connor answers as he tries to jog his memory about the merman’s shark appearance. If Connor’s not mistaken, the shark part of the merman kinda resemble a Mako Shark, based on the color and the fish physical part of the merman, and based on his fins, it can be concluded that he’s a Shortfin Mako shark. “I think he’s Shortfin Mako, if I’m not mistaken.” Connor finishes and both Caleb and Collin hummed in return as the car starts up and the triplets begin their journey to the docks.

The ride is quiet and calming. Collin is not much of a talker, so he’s just looking outside, doing the ‘spot the difference’ game in his mind between today and a month ago’s state of the journey towards the docks, along with thinking about Gavin’s wellbeing. Caleb focuses himself on driving and sometimes thinking about which dog he should adopt between a corgi and a German shepherd later and how he’s going to break up with Rupert by adopting a dog.

Connor, on the other hand, is thinking about the merman.

He just hopes that the merman is going to be okay in the pool area while he’s gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Caleb (RK800-60)/Rupert is not really a major thing and Caleb will break up with Rupert in like, a week later with a red golden retriever in hands, so its not really a pairing in this one lmao
> 
> thank you for reading! your comments fuels me with Hank's bigness energy!
> 
> come bother me on twitter! : @eriapril3


	3. Pickle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What a 'pickle' situation we have here!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_pickle_ **   
>  _pick·le | \ ˈpi-kəl \_   
>  _noun_   
>  _1\. a solution or bath for preserving or cleaning._   
>  _2\. a difficult situation._
> 
> _**Fermented Pickles** are vegetables soaked in a brine solution for 4 to 6 weeks. During this time, lactic acid bacteria, naturally present on the surface of vegetables, grows. Other microbes are inhibited by salt. The color of the vegetables changes from bright green to olive/yellow-green, and the white interior becomes translucent._

****

Connor waits until its past midnight when he goes to check on the merman.

He quietly walks toward the pool area, grateful on Sumo and Cookie are both quiet fellows, so they won’t bust him out and wake his brothers up. He takes a small stop to the cooler to grab the fish bucket for the merman. It has been around past 8 hours since he feed him, and he doesn’t want to make the merman thinks that he abandoned him to starvation. The merman is his responsibility the moment that seal led him to the half-alive merman at the beach and he decided to intervene with his fate.

As he opens the slide door, he holds his breath at what he sees.

There, he can see the merman’s figure sitting by the edge of the pool. His wet silvery hair, glistening wide and strong-looking back with the bandage covering his wound, nonhuman’s features on his figure, combined with the reflected moonlights in the night sky on the pool water surrounds the pool area, where small waves can be seen every time the merman moves his tail in the water.

Noticing Connor’s presence, the merman turns his head and locks his piercing blue eyes to Connor’s brown eyes before he grins toothily at Connor.

Connor can feel his heart skips a beat when he sees it.

“H-Hi! I brought you dinner.” Connor quickly says as he closes the slide door behind him and approaches the merman. He sits down near him and the merman chirps at him happily. He smiles at the merman before he gives Connor the empty fish bucket from this afternoon.

“Oh, thank you.” Connor replies as he exchanges the empty one with the filled one before he realizes that there are several bite marks on every inch of the bucket’s rim and the bottom rim while the merman starts to eat the minnows happily. Hmm. It seems like the merman has some form of an oral-fixation, but in a not destructive way, based on the dents of the bites where it’s pretty shallow. How interesting.

Connor pries his eyes from the bucket as he hears the merman chirps at him and he offers a minnow to him. Connor smiles at the kind gesture, but he shakes his head and gestures the minnow to the merman’s mouth, telling him in a primitive way that he doesn’t want to eat the minnow and that the minnow is for the merman. The merman just stares at Connor in a blank look and turns his attention to the minnow in his webbed hand (Connor just realized it. How fascinating!) before he shrugs and eats the minnow.

He stays like that as he keeps watching the merman eating the minnows before the merman realizes that Connor is watching him eating with such intensity in his doe-like brown eyes that he seems to be self-conscious about it and his cheeks dusted with blue blush before he turns his back to Connor as he continues his feast.

…Oh?

_Oh._

Oh my, the merman is blushing blue and self-conscious about him eating while Connor is observing him.

Connor laughs at the adorable behavior the merman did, which results in receiving an annoyed look from the merman and a toothy frown with bright blue cheeks before the merman chirps angrily at him. He lets out a laugh that’s a little harder than he intends that he covers his mouth while still giggling and the merman is still chirping angrily at him with bright blush that kiss the tips of his shoulders and fin-like ears.

“I’m sorry, but your behavior sure is adorable and interesting.” Connor says before he stands up, “Well, I’m going to sleep. Enjoy your meal.” He adds as he walks to the slide door and waves his hand to the merman, who seems confused by the gesture but copies it back innocently. Connor smiles at that and returns to his room after putting the bitten bucket back near the fish cooler, sighing out in bliss as his back touches the bed and curls into his comforter.

Near the hallway to the pool area, Collin stands frozen there with his phone in hand.

…

“Connor,” Connor turns as he picks up his empty cooler to face Collin’s cool expression, “do you a moment? I want to ask you something.” Collin asks calmly.

“I’m sorry, Collin. I need to go to the docks to grab my monthly fishes order. You can come along if you want if it’s important.” Connor suggests with a slight tilt of his head.

“Ah no, it’s alright, I can wait for it until you come back. It’s not urgent.” Collin replies in understanding, “I need to wait for Gavin too. He’s already on his way here.” He adds with a thin smile.

“Oh, the operation went well last night then? Is he okay?” Connor asks, adjusting the cooler in his arms as Collin nods.

“Just few bruises and scratches, he said, but no major injury.” Collin answers and Connor hums in return.

“Well, that’s good to know that he’s coming. Are you both taking some days off together, like Caleb?” Connor asks and Collin nods at that, which results in Connor’s expression brighten up at the non-verbal answer, “Oh that’s good! That way, both of you and Gavin can have nice and relaxing days off together. Just don’t get too loud like last time, Collin. I still want to get nice good night’s sleep with no awkward boner, after all.” He adds calmly and chuckles when Collin’s face immediately lights up as he sputters out in embarrassment.

“C-Connor!” The oldest triplet laughs at the youngest triplet’s flustered outburst as he puts down the cooler for a moment to put on his jacket and his car and house keys.

“It’s a good thing that Caleb is a heavy-sleeper. If he’s not, he’s not gonna let it slide away, you know.” Connor laughs at Collin’s very rare flustered outburst as he walks toward his car, “Speaking of Caleb, where is he?” he asks as he looks around, where no sign of Caleb or even Sumo since he woke up an hour ago.

“He said that he’s taking Sumo for a walk to the beach.” Collin answers as he follows the oldest, cheeks still dusted pink as he tries to return his expression back.

“Oh, alright then. Well, tell him that I’ll be at the docks to get fish and probably will be back in an hour or two. Don’t forget to feed Sumo and Cookie. Cookie’s canned food is in the second one of the top kitchen cabinet.” Connor tells Collin as he puts the cooler into the car trunk and he slips into the driver’s seat.

“Yeah, I get it already, Connor. You said that every time you’re going out for a while starting six months back when you adopted her.” Collin replies with a roll of his eyes while Connor grins sheepishly at him. “Just be careful, Connor.” He adds softly and the brown-eyed brother smiles genuinely in return.

“Don’t worry, I will. Today is going to be sunny, so everything’s going to be okay.” Connor assures him and Collin nods. Connor starts up his car and puts it on reverse as he turns the car around carefully before he’s off to the road towards the docks.

Connor carefully rides the car, keep on glancing to the rear mirrors for any sneaky drivers from behind every five minutes and keeping his eyes mostly on the road. He’s a slow driver, compared to both Caleb and Collin. Not only because of his anxiety makes him nervous, but also a past trauma revolving around cars and roads in particular.

As he finally arrives at the docks, he carefully and slowly parks the car before he steps out and locks the car. He walks to the trunk and opens it, taking out the cooler and closes the trunk back. The dock he parks his car is not the main dock he’s getting his fishes, but it’s pretty close and only need a minute walks. Connor doesn’t really exercise other than swimming and daily morning and evening walks with Sumo, sometimes a jog instead of plain walking by the beach, so walking to the dock to get his fishes and back to his car is quite a nice challenge every month.

“Good day, Max.” Connor greets as he approaches the large figure of Max’s.

“Hello Connor. Good to see you this early.” Max greets back with a smile as he grabs the cooler away from Connor and both walk side by side deeper into the dock where Max’s boat is anchored.

“Yes. I get a nice good rest and my brothers came yesterday and will stay for the next few days to relax for a while. And I got some good news for work too, so everything is going pretty well.” Connor says with a warm smile as he looks around the dock, which getting busy and crowded with other sailors and possible customers. It’s a nice and lively sight to see where people from various places gather together in one place with one intention in mind. “How about you, Max? How’s the hunt?” Connor asks.

“Well, we got plenty nice fishes and a whole boat at that too. And we got tunas too two days ago! You want to grab some tunas along with your usual fish order, Connor?” Max asks as they come to a stop and Max put the cooler down near one of Max’s big fish buckets. Connor put a hand to his chin with a low hum, thinking about it.

Maybe he can grab a tuna. He can use half of the tuna for tonight’s dinner, while the other is for the merman. The merman is still healing, so getting extra nutrition to improve the healing period should be a good idea. Plus, feeding him with the same prey type as Mako shark should be good for the merman’s mental health so he won’t think that he will be in captivity for a long period of time.

“Hmm… I suppose I’ll grab one tuna. I can ask my brother’s partner to cook it when he arrives this afternoon. As I heard from him, his partner is actually a pretty good cook and use fish in their meal plenty of times. He cooked tuna sometimes too for special occasions.” Connor replies with a smile.

“Well, if that’s the case, I’ll give you another tuna!” Max says with a big, toothy grin, “Your brothers came for a visit, and his partner is coming too! It’s basically a special occasion for you, Connor! Consider it as a gift from me!” He adds with a laugh.

“Oh, but I don’t want to impose…” Connor replies, trying to turn the bonus tuna down. But Max laughs and slaps his big hand to Connor’s back a bit too strongly that he stumbles to the front a bit from the force.

“What are you talking about? Just giving out one tuna to a dear friend won’t hurt me. Plus, consider it as a ‘#1 Customer for 3 years’ gift from me.” Max adds as he puts Connor’s fish order along with two tunas into the cooler and closes it.

“If you insist, I suppose I can’t turn down a friend’s gift, could I?” Connor replies as he takes out his wallet and pays his fishes. Max accepts the cash and pockets it before he picks the cooler up and gives it to Connor’s arms gently. “Well then, tell my regards to Aurora and Katie later. See you next month, Max.” He bids his goodbye while Max just grins and gives a mock salute as Connor adjusts the filled cooler in his arms with a grunt and walks back to his back slowly.

The docks are crowded, but not disorganized, so Connor can easily walk back to his car without anyone accidentally bumping into him.

As he’s on his way back to his home, the road is pretty busy. Not a surprise, as its weekend and most townspeople here left the town to go somewhere else to spend their weekend while outsiders come here to spend their weekend time for the beach. This way, Connor isn’t too nervous while driving home. The cars aren’t able to go too fast because it’s pretty busy.

Connor cuts the car’s power off and steps out. He sees Gavin’s car parked nicely in the garage, means he arrived safely. He grabs the cooler from his trunk and puts it down for a moment to close the trunk back before continues his journey to the kitchen with the cooler and wondering where is everyone until he puts the tunas into the fridge and gets startled by Caleb’s sudden appearance.

“Caleb! You surprised me!” Connor exclaims as he puts a hand to his chest, but Caleb’s horrified and awestruck expression stops him from talking further. “Caleb? What’s wrong…?” Connor asks carefully before Caleb immediately grabs his hand and pulls him along.

Connor is beyond confused at Caleb’s questionable behavior before horror realization strikes him like thunder when his brother leads him to the pool area.

_Shit._

When they arrive, Connor can see both Collin and Gavin are standing near the edge of the pool, their backs facing him.

_Fuck._

“I brought him.” Caleb announces and both Detectives turn around. Collin’s icy blue eyes glints in interest and slight pity, probably because of Connor’s horrified expression, while Gavin’s pickle colored eyes just filled with purely confusion and in disbelief. Right as they both stand near the edge of the pool, Caleb let his hand go before crosses his arms and giving Connor a serious and questioning look.

Connor gulps down his saliva anxiously before glancing down to the pool, checking on the merman’s current situation. He can see the merman’s curling figure at the bottom of the pool, meaning he’s oblivious to what is currently happening around him. Good. Connor doesn’t want the merman to get stressed out because of how many humans are around him.

“Can we…please not discuss it here? It will be a problem if we woke him up.” Connor begs out.

“Nu-uh, Connor. You gotta tell us why there’s a fucking merman in our family pool.” Caleb replies with his foot tapping impatiently. Connor brings up a hand to his straight hair, scratching the back of his head when the nervous itch starts to bite him.

“…I saved him yesterday, okay? He was harpooned and all I can think of is to save him. I-It’s not that I’m keeping this from you or Collin, it’s just…I-I panicked, okay!? H-he was harpooned by that fucking Cyber Fauna and they got his fucking left lung! He was lucky that it’s not a freaking whale harpoon and a seal led me to him when I swam in the sea yesterday! I can’t just leave him laying around at the beach with his blood pooling under him in the sand and slowly dying! I was just—I was—!”

Connor can’t breathe. Why can’t he breathe? It hurts. It’s dark. It’s too much. He can’t breathe. Loud voices. It’s too loud. Something touches him. Don’t touch him. It’s too much. He’s scared. It’s dark, it’s loud, and it’s suffocating. It’s wet.

…

…wet?

Slowly opening his wet eyes (when did he close them?), he’s slowly realizing that he’s on his knees and he’s covering his ears. But what really surprises him is how he’s drenching wet and a gray colored tail is in front of him. He slowly brings up his head and uncovers his ears as he hears deep and menacing growl and he sees that the merman is right in front of him, separating him with his brothers and Gavin’s shocked stances that are already a feet away. Ears are pushed back and his wide back is raised up in warning as the merman keeps on letting out loud and angry growl while his tail curls up to Connor’s right leg.

Oh.

_Oh._

“I-It’s okay, big guy. They’re not hurting me.” Connor tells the merman softly as he puts his right hand to the shark tail. The merman immediately stops and turns to face him, his sharp blue eyes glints in danger before soften down when he’s eyeing him before he chirps at him in questioning tone.

“It’s alright, they’re my family. Friends. They’re okay.” Connor continues as he points at the frozen three men’s figures and makes a hugging gesture before he points to his smiling lips, hoping in mind that the merman understands that the others are not threats.

The merman stares at him before turning back to the others, staring at them for a moment before turning back to face Connor. He does it for a few more times before he slowly moves his tail away back into the water pool as he slowly returns to the water, but never leaving Connor’s side and his sharp blue eyes keep watching the three as he chirps out at them.

“…Okay. What the fuck, Connor?” Gavin finally quips out in pure confusion, disbelief, and slightly awestruck on what the hell just happened in just less than five minutes, “Why the heck that merman just jumps out of the water and just immediately growled viciously like a fucking rabid dog at us?” He asks out with a slightly raised voice and the merman growls lowly again at that, but Connor immediately puts a hand on the wet silver tuft of the merman’s that the growling stopped.

“Maybe if you let me calm down for a moment from my panic attack and not making any sudden move or loud noises, he’ll be calm as a cucumber and I’ll be able to continue my explanation.” Connor snaps before he realizes his bad behavior after his panic attack that he pinches the bridge of his nose to try lessen down the headache he gets.

“…Alright, Connor. We’ll give you some space to calm down. We’ll be in the living room.” Collin replies and immediately ushers both Caleb and Gavin out from the pool area, leaving Connor and the merman alone, the latter chirps out softly with concerned expression.

“It’s okay. I’m alright. You don’t have to worry about me. But…I was surprised when you did that, you know.” Connor says with a small smile, “Thank you, for trying to protect me. I still don’t understand why you did it, but I’m still grateful for it. So thank you again, for protecting me.” He finishes out.

The merman is looking at him calmly before opening his mouth and croaks out carefully, “Kaaa…Ka…Kaah? Kaa-ahn-nee-err? Kahnnerr? Khannerr??”

_Oh._

_My._

**_God._ **

“Kahnnerr? Khannerr? Khanneerrr?” The merman croaks out for a few times, as if testing his vocal chords to talk after using it just for chirping and growling for all of his life. Connor is super impressed and very pleased on the merman’s effort to say his name.

“Con-nor.” Connor says, helping out the merman.

“Khannerr?” The merman returns.

“Almost, but not quite. Say it again. Con-nor. Kɒnər. KON-ər.”

“Khon-narr? Kon-nərr?”

“Yes, yes! Con-nor. Connor.”

“Konnərr?”

“Con-nor.”

“Konnər?”

“Connor.”

“Konnorr?”

“Yes!” Connor exclaims out in pure enthusiasm and joy that he grins widely and eyes are tearing up a bit. The merman seems to understand that he accomplishes his effort to say Connor’s name that the merman chirps up happily and calling out Connor’s name for a few times as his tail moves side to side.

“Heheh. Thank you for cheering me up, big guy. I gotta go now. I’ll be back soon with your meal, okay?” Connor tells the merman as he stands up, grumbling softly at his partially wet clothes that stick uncomfortably to his skin.

“Konnorr??” The merman calls out in his surprisingly gruff voice tone and Connor smiles at him.

“I’ll be back soon!” Connor replies and immediately leaves the pool area back into the house.

Now, back to the problem in hand.

“Finally. Our man of the hour is back.” Gavin announces out when Connor steps into the living room and his brothers look up to meet his eyes. Connor deliberately sits down the only place that’s vacant.

“…First of all, Connor, I’m sorry for making you anxious and putting you in a hard situation. I absolutely didn’t mean it.” Caleb immediately apologizes, “I tend to forget about your anxiety and that you’re never on medication.” He adds, anxiously rubbing his hands together.

“No, it’s alright, Caleb. I was just overthinking about it. I know that everything’s gonna be alright. It’s just…you just caught me in surprise, that’s all.” Connor replies.

“Dude. We’re more surprised about the sharkman in the pool! Not to mention he fucking just leaped out like a goddamn actual shark with his jaws wide open!” Gavin exclaims out dramatically with his arms leaps out wide, “He almost fucking bit Caleb’s head off if I didn’t grab him!” He continues.

“I’m sorry. I never thought that he’s gonna behave like that.” Connor answers before he turns to face Caleb, “Did you get hurt?” He asks in concern, but Caleb shakes his head.

“Just shocked, but I’m not hurt, so the merman is not going to be in trouble.” Caleb answers with a laugh.

“But you said that you just took him in and took care for him yesterday,” Collin points out, “He seems to be really protective of you just then. It’s like you’ve been keeping him in in the pool for months.” He continues.

“Or maybe he just imprinted on you, Connor. Like a puppy.” Gavin says with a laugh and Connor put a hand to his chin as he thinks about what Gavin said.

“Well, this merman is a Shortfin Mako shark, which means he’s the smartest one out of the other sharks. And considering he’s half human too, maybe it also affects his learning period.” Connor explains before remembering what the merman accomplished a few minutes back, “Oh! And just then, he learnt how to say my name! Isn’t that adorable!?” He exclaims out excitedly.

**“He what?”**

“He learnt how to pronounce my name! He was trying his best to say my name and he did it! He seems really happy about it that he keeps on calling my name and chirping out sometimes too! Isn’t that adorable!?” Connor says enthusiastically with big, brown eyes sparkling in pure joy and with a wide smile at the discovery as his brothers are actually got smitten by how cute the oldest one from the three is while Gavin is just confused but agree with it all anyway because he knows how Collin loves his oldest brother and won’t forgive anyone who mess with him.

“Ooh! You think he can learn how to pronounce my name too if I taught him?” Caleb asks in the same excitement.

“Maybe he can! That way, he can understand English faster and then we can communicate easier.” Connor agrees, “I suppose Markus is right about it all then. I guess I’ll just accept his suggestion on Monday.” He adds.

“Oh, Markus knew about the merman?” Caleb asks and Connor nods.

“Yes. Like I said, the merman was targeted by Cyber Fauna, and Jericho got some problem with them too in the past, so I was thinking that having the merman under my care and had they foolishly branded harpoon in hand, we can finally try to put down their cruelty under the façade of ‘science’.” Connor growls out, as he balls his fists in anger before he takes a deep breath in and slowly breathes it out to calm himself down. The three grown men glance at each other for a moment before turn their attention back to Connor.

“You can count on us too, Connor.” Collin says calmly as Caleb nods.

“Yeah. We’re brothers, triplets no less! We’re the closest ones you have! And we both have something to do with the law too!” Caleb adds as he stands up and sits down next to Connor, circling his arm around the oldest triplet’s shoulders and squeezing it in a reassuring way.

“And I’ll join in too, I guess. Whatever Collin is going to do, I’ll follow him along.” Gavin says with a nonchalant shrug.

Connor smiles in gratitude for their supports. Yes, he’s not alone. He still has his brothers, his family, with Gavin joining in along the way, and he has his peers too, like Markus, Simon, North, and Josh. Unlike years ago, he was alone when he confronted Cyber Fauna and lost horribly to them.

But no more.

Whatever happens, he has his family and friends to help him out. And the merman will be alright, too.

Everything will be alright.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did you know that gavin's eyes are pickle colored?
> 
> also, our lovely merman can fully open his jaw 80-100 degree! isn't that so cool?!
> 
> and as much as i love top!rk900, i want more bottom!rk900, so theres that ;3


	4. Forest and Sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your Name(s).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _**forest** _   
>  _for·est | \ ˈfȯr-əst, ˈfär-\_   
>  _noun_   
>  _a dense growth of trees and underbrush covering a large tract._
> 
> _A **forest** is a piece of land with many trees. Many animals need forests to live and survive. Forests are very important and grow in many places around the world. They are an ecosystem which includes many plants and animals._
> 
> _**sky** _   
>  _\ ˈskī \_   
>  _noun_   
>  _the upper atmosphere or expanse of space that constitutes an apparent great vault or arch over the earth._
> 
> _During daylight, the **sky** appears to be blue because air scatters more blue sunlight than red. At night, the sky appears to be a mostly dark surface or region spangled with stars. During the day, the Sun can be seen in the sky unless obscured by clouds. In the night sky (and to some extent during the day) the Moon, planets and stars are visible in the sky._

He waits.

He still doesn’t understand what the brown hair land creature said before he left, but he hopes they won’t be gone for long.

He chirps softly and submerges himself back into the water. He stretches out his sore muscles and maneuvers himself in the green water as best as he can, considering the place he’s currently in is not as big as the blue water.

He sits at the bottom as he grabs the food place and clamps his jaw at the edge of it, biting on it and tries to chew through it, but it belongs to the brown hair land creature and he doesn’t want them to be sad if he put holes in it, but he can’t stop biting it and he doesn’t know why.

Speaking about the brown haired land creature, there are more of them too.

There’s the puffy red-brown hair with brown eyes land creature, very dark brown hair with blue eyes land creature, and light brown hair with green-yellow eyes land creature.

They attacked the brown hair land creature, so he protects them from the other land creatures.

But then the brown hair said that they’re not dangerous, so he lay low for now.

But if they did it again, he won’t hesitate to continue his attack.

His ears perk up when he hears voices from above the water, but he just turns his head up toward the source of the sound and waits. But when he sees the brown hair land creature’s blurry figure, he immediately emerges out from the water along with the fish place in his webbed hands.

“Konnorr!” He calls out in joy, but it replaces by wary when he sees the other land creatures behind the brown hair land creature. He frowns at them even when the brown hair approaches him with his meal and sits down on the white land.

“Konnorr?” He calls out in question and worry, but the brown hair just smiles at him.

_ “It’s alright, big guy. They won’t hurt you or even me. They’re okay.” _

Brown hair makes a hugging gesture and points at their smiling mouth, the two dots on their cheek move along and the waves on their forehead pressed together even closer. Oh. They’re friends now. Friends don’t attack each other. He’s going to be okay. The brown hair land creature is okay too.

He puts the fish place on the white land before he pulls himself out from the water, sitting down next to brown hair. He grabs the fish place again and exchanges it with the full one as brown hair offers him with it. He looks into his meal and—oh, it’s not small fishes anymore. It’s all big chunks.

He grabs one and opens his jaws widely before he puts the whole chunk into his mouth, chewing his meal nicely and gulps it down. He grabs another, but this time he offers it to brown hair, whose big brown eyes are actually look wider and they stays still in place.

“Konnorr?” He calls out with questioning tone, titling his head a bit when brown hair didn’t react.

_ “…Okay, what the fuck was that?” _

Light brown hair says something, but doesn’t sound dangerous, so he lets it slide.

_ “I…think that’s how wide his actual jaw is…” _

 Oh, brown hair says something too.

“Konnorr?” He calls out and chirps at brown hair as he offers them the fish.

_ “He’s sharing his food to Connor. Holy shit that’s so adorable.” _

Red-brown hair says something too, but with wide eyes and smile.

_ “He seems to be attached to Connor, indeed. Maybe he did imprints on you, Connor.” _

Dark brown hair also says something with a smile, and this time brown hair pouts and their cheeks look red before they turns to him and shakes their head. Oh. They don’t want it. More food for him then.

And he opens his jaw widely again and puts the fish into him mouth, chewing it nicely again before he realizes that the land creatures are looking at him.

The attention he receives is making his heart pounds hard and his face is getting hot.

He slowly slides into the water with his meal in his arms as he swims across to the other side and continues his meal with his back facing them.

_ “He’s a shy, burly guy, Connor! What the heck, why is he so cute!?” _

_ “Yeah I forgot to mention you that he seems to be bothered if someone is looking at him while eating. Either that, or he just wasn’t used with the attentions he gets, or it’s just merfolk’s trait to be shy to people.” _

_ “If that’s the case, no wonder why only sailors saw them.” _

He continues to eat until there are no more fish chunks in the fish place. He subconsciously clamps his teeth to the fish place, chewing on it gently for a while before he realizes what he is doing.

He quickly turns around and spots brown hair and the others are still there, so he swims slowly toward brown hair. He gives the fish place back to brown hair and chirps out with a toothy grin.

_ “Oh wow, he sure has shark teeth.” _

_ “He’s a mershark, Gavin. Of course he has shark teeth.” _

_ “W-Whatever!” _

_ “Hey Connor, you think it’s okay for us to get closer and teach him how to pronounce our names?” _

_ “I’m sure he won’t mind. I already told him that you guys are okay. Just don’t make sudden move or loud sound.” _

_ “Okay!” _

He perks up when the red-brown hair approaches him and brown hair slowly. He just curiously watches the land creature slowly sitting down next to brown hair. He turns to brown hair with questioning chirps, but they just smiles warmly, which means everything’s okay.

He turns back to look at the red-brown land creature’s brown eyes. Red-brown gulps when they looks back into his eyes. He blinks and tilts his head as he’s getting confused on why the red-brown hair’s face slowly change color that similar to their hair.

_ “C-Connor, his eyes is so blue and bright and it’s my only weakness on people…” _

_ “Oh, don’t be such a drama queen, Caleb. You’re a lawyer, Caleb! How can you look at those judges’ eyes if they have blue eyes too?” _

_ “He’s looking at me that intensely, though!” _

_ “That’s just how he is, Caleb. I think he’s just curious about you.” _

Both brown hair and red-brown hair keep on communicating with each other while dark brown hair and light brown hair approach him slowly too.

Though, brown hair keeps on saying the same thing over and over again.

Maybe if he tries to say it too like ‘Konnorr’, maybe they’ll be happy again!

“Ka-Kaal…” He starts slowly. Hmm. This is hard. “Kaa-all-eeph…?” He tries again, this time try to do it fully.

_ “…oh my god…” _

_ “Yes! Yes, yes! It’s Caleb! Ca-leb!” _

“Khallep?” Hmm. That doesn’t sound right. “Khaylebb?” He tries again.

_ “Almost, big guy! Again, again! Ca-leb!” _

“Kalebb?” That sounds about right, right?

_ “YES! Oh Jesus Christ he said it!” _

He’s a bit startled when red-brown hair suddenly leaped up with loud voice, but they seem pretty happy so he’ll let it slide.

“Kalebb?”

_ “Good job, big guy. This one is Caleb, he’s my younger brother. His name is Caleb. Caleb.” _

He turns to the red-brown hair when brown hair points at them while saying ‘Kalebb’. Oh. Is it what the red-brown hair called? ‘Kalebb’?

“Kalebb? Konnorr?” He calls out and both brown hair and ‘Kalebb’ expressions brighten up before nodding together, which takes his attention a bit. Hmm. Oh! Maybe the brown hair is called ‘Konnorr’?

“Konnorr?”

_ “Yes?” _

He’s right! So they called Konnorr!

“Konnorr, Konnorr, Konnorr.” He repeats the word for a few more times, and each time, ‘Konnorr’ smiles and nods at him.

_ “Damn. He must be into you, Con. He repeats you name more than mine.” _

_ “I told you the guy is basically a puppy.” _

_ “Can I try?” _

_ “Sure, Collin. I’m sure he won’t mind.” _

He perks up when the dark brown hair one moves closer to him. He looks at their blue eyes and tilts his head. They has nice eyes. It’s blue, like the blue air.

_ “Hello. My name is Collin. Collin. Col-lin.” _

The dark brown hair points at themself while saying the same thing over and over again. Oh, is it what they called?

“Kho-Khoo…Kholeen?”

_ “Almost there. Again. Collin. Col-lin.” _

“Kolleen?”

_ “Almost. Col-lin.” _

“Kollin?”

_ “Yes. You did it. Good job!” _

Oh, ‘Kollin’ looks happy. That’s good then.

_ “Come on, Gavin. It’s your turn.” _

_ “Yeah, yeah. I know.” _

Then the last one, the light brown hair one.

He just looks at the land creature’s green-yellow eyes calmly. The light brown hair seems…nervous?

_ “Uhh, I’m Gavin. Gavin. Ga-vin.” _

This one saying the same thing over and over while pointing at themself too.

“Gha…Ghabinn?” Hmmm. Not quite right.

_ “No no, it’s Ga-vin. Ga-vin.” _

“Ghayfinn?”

_ “Ga-vin.” _

“Gayfinn?” That sounds about right.

_ “He just called you ‘gay’!” _

_ “He’s not wrong, though.” _

_ “Caleb, Collin, shut up! Come on, it’s Gavin.” _

“Gayfinn.” He says in finality stubbornly as he frowns at ‘Gayfinn’ before he slips into the water to swim around in the water for a while. He’s starting to feel a bit dry.

_ “I don’t think he’s gonna continue how to pronounce your name correctly, Gavin.” _

_ “That fish is a fucking prick.” _

**…**

In the end, ‘Konnorr’ and the others left. He just looks at the sliding clear stone while waiting, but he gets tired of waiting after a while so he swims across where he can see the blue air and the blue water with the big, bright light in the air.

He wonders how his friend is doing.

Is he still there? Waiting for him to get better from the pain from his back?

He hopes his friend is still there, but away from land creatures.

After all, not all land creatures are like ‘Konnorr’.

He chirps softly and pulls himself out from the water. He pulls himself closer to the clear stone and puts his wet webbed hand on it. He presses his forehead to the clear stone and chirps softly, watching outside calmly.

He stays there and keeps watching outside until he’s starting to feel dry. He slips back into the water and swims around for a while until he accidentally hit his face into the smooth rock. He grunts in pain as he presses his hand to his nose, which hurts more than the other parts on his face.

He emerges his head out from the green water, looking around.

He’s still alone.

He huffs in boredom as he tries to straighten himself at the surface of the water while holding onto the smooth white stone, tail moving side to side slowly.

He hopes ‘Konnorr’ is back soon.

Or that very hairy and big, brown land creature.

He likes that land creature too.

**…**

_ “Big guy? Wake up, buddy. It’s your dinner time.” _

He blinks open his eyes, ears perk up when he hears a voice. He sits up and looks up from the bottom of the water sleepily. Oh, it’s ‘Konnorr’!

He immediately emerges out and chirps happily when he saw Konnorr’s happy expression on their face.

_ “It seems like you got a nice sleep.” _

He chirps in reply. He’s just happy to see ‘Konnorr’ and he’s starving too. He was really bored before, so that’s why he decided to sleep.

_ “You’re hungry, right? I got your dinner. Come up here, big guy.” _

He pulls himself out of the green water and sits down next to ‘Konnorr’ as they gives him the fish place filled with another big chunks fish, but this time the color is different. He chirps at ‘Konnorr’ and eats the fish slowly. He looks up and realizes that the big bright light is already eaten by the blue water, so the blue air and the blue water look very dark.

_ “Boof!” _

His ears perk up as he turns his head, only to face-to-face with the big and very hairy brown land creature. The hairy creature licks his face and he chirps at the creature before they sits down beside him.

_ “His name is Sumo. Su-mo.” _

_ “Boof!” _

“Summo?” He tries out and ‘Konnorr’ smiles widely.

_ “Yes! Good job, you did it on your first try.” _

He chirps out with a smile before he continues his feast. He offers ‘Konnorr’ a fish again, but they refused again. In the end, he eats them all and subconsciously chewing the fish place gently.

_ “I’m sorry for leaving you by yourself. You must be lonely while being kept in here.” _

His ears perk up and he stops mid-chewing to look at ‘Konnorr’. Their brown eyes are glinting prettily as they looks straight, their webless hands are connected to each other and twitching.

“Konnorr?” He calls out in worry. What’s wrong with ‘Konnorr’? Are they okay?

_ “…I’m going to accept Markus’ suggestion and take a pay-leave to take care of you. That way, you won’t be by yourself and I can teach you things you never know about.” _

 He tilts his head in confusion. ‘Konnorr’ is communicating with him, but he doesn’t understand.

He wishes he can understand ‘Konnorr’s words so he can show his gratitude for saving him.

Maybe one day, ‘Konnorr’ can teach him.

**…**

The next time he wakes up, it’s bright and ‘Summo’ is sleeping near the water, but wakes up when he gets closer to the very hairy land creature. He stares into the dark brown eyes as ‘Summo’ also stares at him, one of their tails is moving side to side slowly and he copies it.

“Summo.” He calls out and ‘Summo’ lets out soft ‘boof’ in return.

“Summo, boof.” He says and ‘Summo’ lets out another ‘boof’.

“Boof, boof? Summo, boof?”

_ “Boof.” _

“Boof?”

_ “Arf!” _

“Arf? Arf, arf, boof, boof?”

_ “Arf! Aroooo…!” _

“Aroooo…?”

_ “Arf!” _

He still doesn’t understand what ‘Summo’ means by ‘boof’, ‘arf’, and ‘aroooo’, but he lets it slide.

He chirps softly. He’s bored. He wants ‘Konnorr’ to come and visit him. Or ‘Kalebb’. Or ‘Kollin’.

He swims around in the green water slowly. Hopefully, ‘Konnorr’ will be back soon.

**…**

_ “Big guy? Are you awake?” _

His ears perk up when he hears ‘Konnorr’s voice and he immediately swims up.

“Konnorr!”

_ “Oh wow, he really did learn how to say your name. He’s a fast-learner one, isn’t he?” _

Oh, ‘Konnorr’s friends?

Hmm. They’re different. One of them has almost no hair with different eye colors, green-yellow and blue air eyes. The other one has short yellow hair with blue air eyes. They both look friendly and they both are smiling at him with ‘Konnorr’ beside them, so they’re not dangerous.

“Konnorr?” He calls out and ‘Konnorr’ approaches him with a smile.

_“It’s alright. They’re my friends. This one is Markus,”_ ‘Konnorr’ points at the no-hair land creature, _“And this one is Simon.”_ Then ‘Konnorr’ points at the yellow hair land creature.

_ “Hello, my name is Markus. Markus. Mar-kus.” _

“Mha…Marhkuus?”

_ “Close. Mar-kus.” _

“Markhus?”

_ “Yes. Good job!” _

So the no-hair is called ‘Markhus’. Alright then.

_ “Hi there. I’m Simon. Simon. Si-mon.” _

“Sa…Saiimenn?”

_ “Almost there, buddy. Si-mon.” _

“Saimon?”

_ “Yes! Good job, big buddy!” _

And the yellow hair is called ‘Saimon’. Okay then.

“Konnorr?” He calls out as he turns to look at ‘Konnorr’. ‘Konnorr’ sits down and pats the smooth white stone beside him. He pulls out from the water and sits down beside him while ‘Konnorr’s friends sit down at his other side.

_ “Does he have a name? Do merfolks even have names?” _

_ “I don’t think they have. Maybe they’re like animals, considering he keeps communicating with me through chirps and grunts before he learns how to say my name and the others.” _

He lets out a huff when ‘Konnorr’s smooth and warm hands touching and stroking his back to his fin, but he stays still. He’s pretty curious on what ‘Konnorr’s going to do, but he trusts ‘Konnorr’.

_ “According to the data, merfolks have fast regenerative system on their whole body, but their epidermis is the fastest one to heal and fix the broken tissues. He was harpooned two days ago and I already stitched it close, but I just wanted to make sure if it heals up or not. He’s always in the water, so I was worried that it will affect the wound.” _

He growls a bit when ’Konnorr’ touches the wound on his back, but the other hand that is stroking his fin is calming him down. He grunts softly as he feels the thing that attached to his back is pulled slowly.

_ “Hmm. It seems it’s starting to close up. I think I need to take the stitches out.” _

He stays still, letting ‘Konnorr’ checking his wound. He chirps out when he’s starting to get dry and can’t stay still. He wants to go back into the water.

_ “Connor, I think he’s drying up.” _

_ “I figured. I’m almost done, big guy. Hang on for a moment, okay?” _

He coughs out as he’s starting to get drier.

_ “Okay, big guy. You can soak up.” _

‘Konnorr’ points toward the water. He immediately slips into the water and swims around for a while before he’s back to ‘Konnorr’. ‘Konnorr’ holds out a hand and starts stroking his wet face gently. He chirps softly in return as ‘Konnorr’ smiles at him.

_ “He does seem healthy and no further implications on his condition either. I think we can safely say that he survived the attack.” _

_ “And he’s learning how to talk like us too. That’s a very good improvement.” _

_ “Yes. I am very proud of him. If this keeps improving, we can ask him to be our witness to put Cyber Fauna to a stop. His improvement also helps on understanding the species too.” _

_ “I suppose that’s gonna be all. I will be waiting for weekly report on the progress, Connor. Take a long paid-leave if you want to take care of him, and also for your long-deserved day offs.” _

_ “Yeah, Connor. You’ve been working hard since we hired you in and never really had day offs. Hopefully, the merman will be able to take you off from your workaholic tendencies while he understands about the world more from you.” _

_ “I…Well, thank you, Markus. You’ve help me more than once.” _

_ “Anything for a dear friend. Take care, Connor.” _

And just like that, ‘Markhus’ and ‘Saimon’ left.

“Konnorr?” He calls out. ‘Konnorr’ smiles at him and strokes his hand to the side of his face gently. He huffs softly and puts his hand over ‘Konnorr’s hand, slightly fascinated on how smooth and warm the hand is.

Then he puts ‘Konnorr’s hand into his mouth.

_ “O-Oh.” _

He grunts with pleased heart as he nibbles on ‘Konnorr’s hand gently.

_ “You remind me more like a koi fish than a shark.” _

They both stay like that for a moment before a loud voice surprised both of them that he accidentally presses his teeth around ‘Konnorr’s hand a bit harder than intended and he quickly lets it go.

Red.

Red water pouring out from ‘Konnorr’s hand.

_ “Oh shit, Connor you okay?!” _

_ “I-I’m okay. You surprised him, Caleb. He was nibbling me like a koi before you shout. I told you not to make loud noises when you’re around him. Merfolks are timid by nature, you know.” _

_ “Oh fuck, I’m so sorry!” _

He chirps out in panic. Red water means danger. He didn’t mean it. Is ‘Konnorr’ going to die!?

_ “Hey, hey. It’s alright, big guy. It’s not that deep, so I’ll be okay. It’s just like paper-cuts, see?” _

‘Konnorr’ smiles at him and hisses as they holds their injured hand to their chest. He chirps in panic frantically. He’s sorry! He didn’t mean it! He’ll try to not do it again!

_ “It’s okay. I’m not mad, okay? I’ll be back with your meal in a moment, okay big guy?” _

And just like that, ‘Konnorr’ smiles at him again before they left him there.

It’s his fault.

But even so, he waits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hank not liking gavin? check. :3c  
> gavin not liking hank? check. :3cc
> 
> i wonder if any of you readers understand the actual meaning of every chapter titles i published or any references i use in this fic xD
> 
> come bother me on twitter if u want! @eriapril3


	5. Paper and Ink

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is there anything better than pussy?  
> Yes, a really good book!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _**pa·per** _   
>  _/ˈpāpər/_   
>  _noun_   
>  _material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on, or as wrapping material._
> 
> _**ink** _   
>  _/iNGk/_   
>  _noun_   
>  _a colored fluid used for writing, drawing, printing, or duplicating._

Connor hisses as the alcohol touch his open wound.

He’s still surprised when the merman put his hand into his mouth and nibbling on it as gently as a koi until Caleb shouting his name just to ask him about fish pellets and surprising the merman that he accidentally bit him. The merman is really guilty that he chirps in a panicky way and the fearful glint in his sharp blue eyes are very apparent to see.

He can’t get angry when the merman looks so guilty.

The same can’t be said to Caleb though.

“Cooon…?” Caleb calls him slowly, guilt ebbed in his voice.

He ignores him as he rolls the bandage around his injured hand carefully.

“Come on, Con. Talk to meee…” Caleb tries again.

He’s still ignoring him.

“Caleb, just leave him be for a moment. You know that he won’t answer you for days if you keep doing that.” Collin comments coolly as he pries his eyes from his tablet, “After all, it is your fault from the beginning.” He adds.

“Collin, can you pass me the salt?” Gavin asks as he finishes cutting up the tuna.

“Here you go, Gav.” Collin passes him the salt and back to the tablet, “Connor, do you have rosemary?” He asks and Connor grabs the rosemary pot near him.

“Here you go, Collin.” Connor puts a pot of rosemary plant on the counter next to the youngest. Collin thanks him as he returns on assisting Gavin preparing for their dinner. Connor grabs the fish bucket he already prepared for the merman. He glances at Caleb who’s sulking on the dining chair while looking his phone. Connor ruffles the younger’s wavy, cinnamon-colored hair as he walks past him to the pool area, not spotting Caleb’s joyful expression.

As he walks, Sumo eventually joins him when he grabs pictured books in the study room and continues on his way to the pool area. Connor is thinking on starting to teach the merman how to read and talk with the help of simple pictured books. Hopefully, the merman is cooperative.

He walks closer to the edge of the pool, and surely, the merman is curling at the bottom of the pool.

“Big guy, are you awake? It’s me, Connor. I got your dinner.” Connor calls out. He can see that the merman’s ear perks up when he calls him, along with the shark tail that moves laxly before the merman sits up and swims up.

“Konnorr…” The merman calls softly, looking at his eyes before glancing down to his bandaged hand, ears dropping as he looks down guiltily.

“Come sit, buddy. I wanna show you something.” Connor tells the merman as he sits down and pats the empty space beside him. The merman complies quietly and chirps softly when Sumo eagerly licks off the water from the merman’s face. He laughs softly when the merman seems a bit overwhelmed, but the merman seems happy, so everything’s under control.

“Do you want to eat first, or some learning period?” Connor asks, showing the fish bucket with one hand and the books are in his other hand. The merman’s ears perk up when he sees the books in interest. Connor smiles as he puts away the fish bucket and the books and grabs a dry cloth from the back pocket of his shorts. “Gimme your hands?” He asks, gesturing to the merman’s wet hands and he complies obediently as Connor wipes his hands dry before he grabs one book and opens it.

The merman is so fascinated by the pictures in the book that he keeps stroking the pictures with his webbed hand.

“Konnorr?” The merman points at a picture of a great white shark.

“That’s a ‘Great White shark’. See this? It’s a word for the shark’s name.” Connor points at the word with a smile as the merman’s gaze follows his pointer. “Say with me. Great…” He starts.

“G-Grhe…grhead?” The merman tries.

“Close. Let’s try again. Great…”

“Great?”

“Yes! Good job! Now, this one is white. White…”

“Whait?”

“Pretty close. Again. White…”

“White…?”

“Yes, yes! Good job, big guy!”

And for a while, Connor teaches the merman how to read and say the words on the book. They stop for a moment for a few times when the merman soaks himself up with the water and goes back up, continuing their reading lesson. Connor is surprised at the merman’s fast learning period, but he’s happy with the end result when they reread the same book again and the merman is reading the words out loud by himself.

Eventually, Collin calls Connor for dinner, so he gives the merman his meal for the night too before he left.

“So you teach him how to read and say it out loud?” Caleb asks in interest.

“Yes! Isn’t that amazing?” Connor replies and takes a bite of the tuna into his mouth. “He seems to be very interested on the book, so it’s going to be a good thing for his future learning period.” He continues after he swallows the food in his mouth.

“Good for you and him then.” Collin comments with a smile while Gavin nods in agreement.

As soon as he finishes dinner, he goes back to the pool area where he sees the merman is reading the second book and the fish bucket is empty. The merman turns his head when Connor approaches him.

“Konnorr.” The merman calls with a smile when Connor sits down next to him and returns the smile.

“I see that you like to read.” Connor says.

“This…good…like…” The merman starts as he holds the book in his hands up, “Konnorr.” He finishes with a toothy grin.

Oh my.

“Konnorr…food like?” The merman asks as he opens the book again and points at a certain seawater fish, “Konnorr…like this…fsh?” He asks curiously.

“It’s ‘fish’, with the stick that has a head between the ‘f’ and the ‘s’. And yes, I like that fish.” Connor answers fondly, “What fish do you like?” He asks back.

“Konnorr…fish…like too…this fish…like…too.” The merman answers back while pointing at the same fish and another fish, “Fish…food good…like.” He adds choppily.

The merman keeps talking to Connor. Sometimes talking about the content in the book or asking plenty questions choppily, but didn’t stop the merman from talking and learning while Connor fondly and patiently deals with them all. He guides the merman to everything he wants to know about. Sometimes the merman points at something and asks Connor about it, and he answers them and slowly explaining it to the merman, who’s been looking at Connor in fascination and awe as he listens to the explanations.

“Connor? You still here?”

Connor and the merman turn their heads in sync as they see Caleb, Collin, and Gavin all walks into the pool area casually.

“Kalebb…like fish?” The merman asks suddenly when the three men get closer. Caleb stops in pure awe and curiosity when he heard the merman asking him a question.

“Yes, I sure do love fish.” Caleb answers with a smile as he sits down near the merman.

“Kollin, like fish?” The merman asks as he turns to look at Collin.

“Yes. I like fish.” Collin answers calmly.

Then the merman just stares at Gavin with his sharp look before he eventually ignores him.

“That dipshit is glaring at me before ignoring me.” Gavin grumbles in annoyance while Caleb chuckles.

“Maybe he just doesn’t like you.” Caleb says with a shrug and an amused smile.

Connor keeps his eyes on the merman, who’s reading the third book with determined look in his sharp blue eyes, sometimes trying to read it out loud, other times just trying to read it without his voice. It’s a pretty endearing sight to observe. The merman is learning pretty fast; faster than he thought he would be. Sometimes, the others are helping him on the pronunciations, other times they just tried to casually chat with the merman, who doesn’t seem to mind it.

Eventually, the others retreat to their bedrooms as drowsiness starts to get them. Connor stays with the merman, accompanying him on rereading all of the books until his eyes flutter a bit when sleepiness slowly gets him. He jolts awake when the merman’s big palm rests gently on his shoulder.

“Konnorr is sleepy?” He asks in concern and Connor smiles at him as he stretches out with a big yawn.

“I guess I am. I’m going to sleep. You have to sleep too, big guy. Eager on learning is good, but pushing yourself is not. Here, lemme take the books.” Connor says as he collects the books and notices a shallow bite-mark on one of the books. He glances at the merman, who’s looking away with blue blush is seen at the tip of his webbed ears and shoulders. He chuckles at the adorable behavior, which receives an embarrassed and annoyed look as the merman chirps at him angrily.

“I’ll come again tomorrow with new books for you to read, okay? Good night, big guy.” Connor says with a smile.

“Night, Konnorr.” The merman replies back before he slips back into the water. Connor walks out from the pool area, closing the sliding door before continues his steps back to the study room. He returns the books back to the bookshelf before he picks few other books for the merman tomorrow morning.

Connor decides to pick simple children storybooks and spots particular one he remembers fondly, so he picks it and put them on his study desk. He turns the lights off when he leaves the study room to his bedroom. He lays down on his bed and smiles as Cookie jumps onto the bed and meows at him before she curls down near him and he drifts off to sleep.

He hopes the merman has a good dream.

**…**

“Konnorr, sleep good?” He asks as he sees ‘Konnorr’ and ‘Summo’ are approaching him.

“Yes, thank you for asking. How about you? Did you get a good sleep?” ‘Konnorr’ asks back with a smile as they sits down near him with books and food bucket in their hands.

“Yes. Me sleep good.” He answers before he pulls himself out from the water and sits next to ‘Konnorr’.

“Do you want to eat first or read?” ‘Konnorr’ asks.

“Eat. Me hungry.” He answers and ‘Konnorr’ gives him the bucket as he peers into the bucket. Its small fishes. He eats the fishes slowly while ‘Konnorr’ is stroking ‘Summo’s hair. “Konnorr, eat?” He asks ‘Konnorr’ curiously, as he never really see ‘Konnorr’ eat when they’re with him.

“I already eat before I come here, so don’t worry, I’m not starving.” ‘Konnorr’ answers calmly with a smile and he nods in return.

“Good. Konnorr, have to eat. Hungry is…bad. Friends…hunt each other…when hungry.” He replies as he remembers where others like him hunted the others when land creatures take many fishes long ago. He still doesn’t like that.

“Don’t worry. I won’t hunt my friends even when I’m hungry.” ‘Konnorr’ says, “I have plenty of food for me and my friends, so no one has to fight each other for food.” They continues.

He glances to ‘Konnorr’ and spots their injured hand, where white thing is covering it.

“Konnorr…okay?” He asks slowly and ‘Konnorr’ turns their head to look at him in confusion, “Konnorr…hand, okay?”

“Oh. Oh, my hand is okay. I already fix it. I just need a few days and everything will be good.” ‘Konnorr’ answers with a smile.

Good. That’s good, then.

“Me…sorry. For bite.” He says to ‘Konnorr’, looking down to the empty bucket. He flinches a bit when he feels ‘Konnorr’s hand presses to his cheek, but calms down and grunts softly as he feels the nice warmth that ‘Konnorr’s hand gives.

“It’s okay. You didn’t mean it, right? It’s alright, I’m not angry.” ‘Konnorr’ tells him with a warm smile. He looks into ‘Konnorr’s brown eyes and glances at the waves on their forehead along with the dots on their cheek.

He gets closer to ‘Konnorr’ and sniffs at them.

“U-Uhm…?”

Hmm. ‘Konnorr’ smells like fish, ‘Summo’, and something else that smells nice.

 “U-Umm, are you okay? Is something wrong with me? I did take a shower before I come here though.” ‘Konnorr’ says as they puts a hand back to his cheek and he pulls away from ‘Konnorr’.

“Konnorr…smell good. Shower??” He asks in confusion. What’s a shower?

“Ah yes. Shower is a way to clean ourselves from dirty stuffs we get. We use soap to clean our body, and we use shampoo to clean our hair.” ‘Konnorr’ explains. Clean from dirty stuffs?

“Shower…is water?” He asks again.

“Oh. Shower is like rain. You know rain, right?” ‘Konnorr’ asks back and he nods.

“Sky water.” He concludes and ‘Konnorr’ smiles as they nods.

“Yes, ‘sky water’.”

“Konnorr smell good…from soap…and shampoo?”

“Yes. I use chocolate soap bar and mint leaves shampoo that I got from my friend when she came over two weeks ago from a trip.”

He grunts in reply as he pulls away from ‘Konnorr’ and slips into the pool to soak himself up before he returns to ‘Konnorr’.

“Read…book.” He says and ‘Konnorr’ gives him a dry cloth to wipe his wet hands. Apparently, water is bad for books, so he has to be careful. He gives the cloth back to ‘Konnorr’ and he picks one book from the pile. Hmm. This one is yellow colored.

“The…Little…Prince. Konnorr? What is ‘Prince’?” He asks.

“Prince means the son of a monarch. Monarch is a royalty, people with high power and status.” ‘Konnorr’ explains, “It’s basically the son of a king, the highest leader in the royalty.”

He nods with a grunt as he opens the book and starts to read every word he sees on each page. He mostly asks ‘Konnorr’ about words he found and does not understand what it means, but ‘Konnorr’ answers to them all very patiently and with warm, big brown eyes looking back at him. Sometimes he stops to soak up, but he continues on reading the book with ‘Konnorr’ helping him until ‘Kollin’ comes to call ‘Konnorr’ that ‘lunch is ready’.

“I’m gonna go eat, then I’ll come back here with your lunch, is that alright?” ‘Konnorr’ asks and he nods.

“Yes. ‘Konnorr’…eat…a lot. Be strong and big, like Summo.” He replies as ‘Summo’ approaches him and ‘Konnorr’ chuckles in return. He likes it when ‘Konnorr’ do that, because ‘Konnorr’ looks happy.

“Well, I’ll be back.”

And ‘Konnorr’ left.

He turns to ‘Summo’, who’s apparently a ‘dog’ land creature and is a male. ‘Kalebb’ showed him ‘dogs’ yesterday using a strange thing called ‘smartphone’ and pictures showed up when ‘Kalebb’ pressed their finger on the surface. There are many versions of dogs, and ‘Summo’ is… Hmm. He forgot the name. Saint…something? Something like that.

He likes ‘Summo’. ‘Summo’ reminds him of his friend, but less hairy and very smooth. And also very colorful, unlike his friend that only has one color.

“Summo. Good. Listen to me read?” He asks and ‘Summo’ replies with a happy ‘boof’. He smiles a bit and starts to read the book out loud with ‘Summo’ as his listener.

The book is about a pilot, who stranded in a desert because of his plane had broken down. When he tried to fix it, a golden haired child, named Little Prince, suddenly appears and asking the aviator to draw him a sheep. As the story goes on, Little Prince actually came from a very small planet. In that planet, there’s a single rose that sprouted and is demanding the Little Prince to take care of her. Demanding, but Little Prince loves her anyway.

That is, until the Little Prince catches the rose making a minor lie about ‘where she comes from’.

The lie made Little Prince to doubt the sincerity of the rose’s love, as the rose grew in the planet therefore she doesn’t ‘come from’ anywhere but his planet, so he became unhappy and lonely that he left the planet. The story goes on to where the Little Prince meets a fox, asking him to play with him. But the fox says that he has to tame him first. The Little Prince doesn’t understand the word ‘tame’, but the fox explains that it means ‘to establish ties’.

So he did, but the Little Prince has to go and the fox says that he will weep, but it was worth it and tells the Little Prince to visit the rose garden to understand why the rose in his planet is special. He did and he realized that even though his rose is not a unique type of flower, she is unique to him because he has cared and loved her. He had tamed her just like the fox.

He stops there.

What is ‘ _love_ ’?

**…**

Connor observes the merman quietly. When he returns, the merman is unusually quiet and serious when he eats after reading ‘The Little Prince’. Maybe he shouldn’t choose it after all. It’s a children storybook for adults, so it’s probably hard for the merman to comprehend. Connor is ready for the merman to questions hard words he encounters in the book, but it never came that it confuses Connor a bit, but he’s okay with it.

But when the merman stays quiet even when he reads the second storybook (it’s about tortoise and rabbit), it worries Connor.

“Is everything okay? You’ve been very quiet for a while.” Connor asks in concern, pulling the merman’s attention from the book to look at him with his sharp blue eyes.

“Ah, no. I’m okay. Just…thinking.” The merman answers quietly. Oh, he talks smoothly already! And Connor just left the merman for around two hours to finish ‘The Little Prince’! He’s so proud!

“What are you thinking about, if you’re okay with me asking?” Connor asks again, but the merman shakes his head and smiles.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it, Konnorr.” The merman answers before he returns to the book. Well, if the merman says so, Connor won’t push it.

“Just tell me if there’s something bothering you, alright?” Connor assures him.

“Sure thing, pup.” The merman replies calmly and Connor freezes at that.

P-pup???

Wow.

The merman is actually maturing up too.

He really wonders how far and fast will the merman grow from here on.

And Connor needs to think about a name for the merman too, if he found out that he doesn’t have a name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did you know? baby sharks are called 'pups'!
> 
> and our sharkman is learning fast! merfolks are fast-learners, after all, if they're put in a very social place or situation. sharkman is so lucky to have Connor and his family!


	6. Silver and Wood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is the meaning of a name?
> 
> And what kind of relationship do burgers and pickles have?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _  
> **silver**  
>  _   
>  _sil·ver | \ ˈsil-vər \_   
>  _noun_   
>  _a white ductile very malleable metallic element that is capable of a high degree of polish, is chiefly monovalent in compounds, and has the highest thermal and electric conductivity of any substance._
> 
> _  
> **wood**  
>  _  
> _\ ˈwu̇d \_  
>  _noun_  
>  _the hard fibrous substance consisting basically of xylem that makes up the greater part of the stems, branches, and roots of trees or shrubs beneath the bark and is found to a limited extent in herbaceous plants._

“Konnorr? Come swim with me?” He asks when ‘Konnorr’ walks into the pool area.

“Oh. Uhh, you want me to swim with you?” ‘Konnorr’ asks back as they walks closer. He nods as an answer with a smile. He never really see ‘Konnorr’ swim despite having a big pool in his house. “Alright then.” ‘Konnorr’ replies as they walks away for a moment.

They pulls off their shirt and puts it on the floor before they turns around and approaches the pool. He swims closer to ‘Konnorr’ as they slips into the water and he wraps his arms around them while sniffing their hair.

“Konnorr smells nice.” He says and ‘Konnorr’ chuckles.

“Of course. I took a bath before I come here.” ‘Konnorr’ answers, their cheeks slowly turn into rosy color as they puts their hands on his arms, “Oh boy this is so close…” They softly says, but he can hear it. ‘Konnorr’ is smaller than him, but that’s fine. He likes being close to ‘Konnorr’ and ‘Konnorr’ is warmer than him.

“Umm, do you have a name, big guy?” ‘Konnorr’ asks.

“Name? I…think I do…” He answers slowly, “But it’s…hard to understand…to English.” He adds.

“It’s alright. Just try to say it. I’ll wait.” ‘Konnorr’ replies patiently.

“Ma…called me…’Sere*’…a few times. But I…don’t know…if it’s my name.” He says before he gets an idea, “Why don’t you give me a name, Konnorr?” He suggests and ‘Konnorr’ turns around to face him with confusion on their face.

“Me?” ‘Konnorr’ asks in bewilderment, “But I don’t know what to name you. And I’m bad at naming too.” They says.

“As long as it’s you who named me, I don’t mind.” He replies with excitement blooms in his chest. ‘Konnorr’ hums while thinking, putting a hand under their chin and eyebrows knit close together, making the wrinkles on his forehead become even more apparent. He likes ‘Konnorr’s wrinkles.

“How about…’Hank’?” ‘Konnorr’ asks, “It means ‘Estate Ruler’. And I think you’re basically the ruler of this pool area by now.” ‘Konnorr’ explains.

“’Hank’…” He tries to say it out. He likes it. “Okay. I like it.” He, Hank, replies. He nuzzles his nose back into ‘Konnorr’s hair and slips his arms under their arms, wrapping his arms around ‘Konnorr’ as he breathes into the sweet-smelling hair.

“Y-you’re pretty affectionate, aren’t you?” ‘Konnorr’ comments as they puts a hand to his face. Hank turns and nuzzles into ‘Konnorr’s palm before he opens his mouth and starts to nibble ‘Konnorr’s fingers gently, “And a biter too.” ‘Konnorr’ adds, which snapped Hank out of his trance and lets his grip go.

“Oh. Sorry. I just…uhh…don’t know what comes over me.” Hank immediately replies and lets ‘Konnorr’ go from his arms, swimming away a bit in embarrassment and turns around.

Ugh, what is he doing? ‘Konnorr’ is a land creature, absolutely different from Hank. Land creatures probably aren’t like sea creatures. From books he read for the past three days (‘Konnorr’ taught him the concept of ‘time’, about when big and bright light, which apparently called ‘sun’, is out, it’s called ‘morning’, when it’s high in the sky, it’s called ‘noon’, and when the bright light disappeared, it’s called ‘evening’ or ‘night’. It was really fun.), every characters he read in the books are only affectionate to each other if they’re a kin to each other or in love with each other. ‘Konnorr’ only here to take care of him until he’s good to go back into the sea, then he’ll be back to his daily life traveling the sea with his friend. ‘Konnorr’ is a land creature, they can’t breathe underwater. They doesn’t have gills and can’t hold their breath for more than a minute.

“Hank?” ‘Konnorr’ calls and he turns around to look at ‘Konnorr’, who swims closer to him. “Are you okay? You look…bluer.” ‘Konnorr’ asks as they puts their palm to gently stroking the side of his face. He chirps softly as he closes his eyes to let ‘Konnorr’ pampers him with warm and gentle touches on all over his face.

“You’re a bit warmer too. Are you sick?” ‘Konnorr’ asks in concern. Hmm. He doesn’t feel sick. He feels okay. But he likes it when ‘Konnorr’ touch him gently. No one touch him like that other than his friend. Even his late mate never touches him like that again when the sea became really cold before land creatures took her from the sea.

“You know. I came here to ask you two if you guys want anything when I go out to grab something for our birthday, but instead you guys are actually being lovey-dovey in the pool.”

Hank and ‘Konnorr’ immediately turn their heads and see ‘Kalebb’ is crouching down near the pool, looking at them with bored look.

“C-Caleb!” ‘Konnorr’ calls out with red face, pulling away from Hank. “I-I was just checking if he’s sick, that’s all! He looks bluer and he feels warmer than normal.” ‘Konnorr’ replies and lets out a squeak when he wraps his arms around ‘Konnorr’ and nuzzles his nose to their brown hair. Hmm. Smells nice and feels nice.

“He seems drunk for you, Con. Or maybe he’s in heat?”

“…huh?”

**…**

Apparently it’s mating season for Shortfin Mako shark, and Hank actually affected by it.

Connor buries his scarlet face into his palms in complete shame and thinking how stupid he is. He should have to be able piecing it together when he realized that Hank is Shortfin Mako shark merman and it’s in the middle of August. He can’t believe his brother that barely knows about water creatures knows about Shortfin Mako shark’s mating season while he’s the one that graduated with a degree and has a job as a marine biologist.

“Wow. I can’t believe my useless knowledge for fanfiction kinks actually what guessed that merman’s weird behavior…” Caleb comments as he turns the wheel to park the car while Connor groans out loud in embarrassment in return. “Heey cheer up, bro! Let’s grab some burgers on our way back after we grab Sumo and Cookie’s foods.” He says with a grin as he pats Connor’s shoulder before he steps out from the car.

“I should have remembered about Shortfin Mako’s mating season, Caleb! I’m the freaking Head Marine Biologist in Jericho, and it completely slips my mind.” Connor grumbles as he steps out from the car and slammed the door before following Caleb.

“You do have a lot in mind, so it’s not really a big deal. Besides, you can’t possibly know that merfolks will have the same mating season as their fish part.” Caleb reasons out calmly, “But he’s not aggressive like his shark counterpart, so I think that’s a good thing then. He’s more humane compared to days ago we first saw him. Except just then, he looked drunk or drugged. The sluggish and clingy type, I mean. It was pretty cute.” He adds.

Well, Caleb is not wrong on the cute part.

“Yeah, but it’s embarrassing me when he got real close like that. Skin to skin, nonetheless.” Connor argues back as his cheeks redden again.

“Like, you can feel his muscles and his pecs touching your skin? I can’t believe you’re more desperate than I thought, Con.” Caleb comments with a smirk and laughing at Connor’s beet colored face. “I’m fine if you end up with him, but he’s in mating season phase, Connor. He’s affected by his hormones and not in his right mind. Consent might not a thing in his mind for the next few months, or maybe he doesn’t even know what consent is. I know how important consents are for you, Con.” He continues.

Connor knows that. Consent is everything to him. He doesn’t like it if he seems to be demanding or pushy towards anyone unless its work related, and especially if it’s about romance or sex. He had seen what North had gone through ever since he knows her since they’re in high school, which never really gone until this moment. He doesn’t want that kind of thing that North gone through happened to his future partner.

“Maybe if you keep him until springtime, he’ll finally fall in love for you for real, Con. After all, all love blooms in spring.” Caleb says with playful grin, “Then that way, you can ‘get’ him for real and you can share the experience of dating a merman to me!” He adds in delight.

Why though.

“Are you thinking of dating one? Also, he’s not Pokémon, I can’t just ‘get’ him. And since when you became a romantic, Caleb?” Connor asks as he opens the pet shop’s door and walks in, holding the door open as Caleb follows him in.

“Since I came out from the closet years ago.” Caleb replies with a grin.

“Oh, hello Connor and Caleb. Here for Sumo and Cookie’s foods?” The clerk, Kara, greets them with a smile. Connor had known Kara since he searched for a pet four years ago after his first pet died around two years before. He doesn’t know much about Kara other than she has a daughter named Alice. Sometimes Alice is helping Kara out at the shop and she’s a nice kid. “If you need help, just call me, alright? I’ll come right away.”

“Yeap! You got it, Kara!” Caleb replies with a grin as he walks on to the food section while Connor nods at Kara, who nods back with a smile.

After they got the pet foods, they return to the car to put them all in the trunk before they walk to the park.

“Let’s go get burgs for the others too! Oh, you think Hank is okay with burger?” Caleb asks as they got closer to a burger food truck at the park.

“Honestly, I’ve been thinking of giving him cooked foods instead of raw fish. That way, I’ll know if he has food allergy or not to certain foods, and if he has preferences to certain foods.” Connor answers as Caleb orders five to-go burgs. “Oh, don’t give pickles** in one burger. I can’t risk it if an acidic food is bad for Hank.” He tells the food clerk, who just rolls his eyes before turns his back to Connor and Caleb as he prepares the burgers.

How rude.

He swears if there’s a single pickle in Hank’s burger, he will throw a hissy fit to the clerk.

“Dude. There better be no pickle whatsoever in one of the motherfucking burgers unless you want my brother to throw a fucking hissy fit at you.” Caleb tells the clerk as he gives the clerk the money in exchange for a paper bag with five boxed burgers inside.

“Whatever, man.” The clerk replies with another roll of his eyes and starts to serve another customer.

Why this fucking prick—!

“Okay, Con. Let’s check on these burgs first before you throw your hissy fit here. Let’s sit here.” Caleb quickly says as he pulls Connor along to the nearest park bench and pulls him down to sit on the bench with him. “Alright, let’s check on these burgs.” He continues as he takes out each boxed burgers and opens all five to check for pickles. But alas, all of them have pickles in it.

Why that motherfucking dipshit—!

“Okay Connor. Calm the fuck down. Let’s just throw the pickles for Hank, okay? Let’s just hope the juice didn’t get inside the burg and your future husband won’t die in a dumbest way, okay bro?” Caleb quickly grabs Connor’s arm as he’s about to jump back to the food truck and curse at the clerk.

Connor growls in anger, but did what Caleb says anyway before they pack the burgers back and put it back into the paper bag before they walk back to the car. But Connor actually keeps the pickles in his hand and as he approaches the food truck, he immediately throws the pickles square into the clerk’s face and follows Caleb along, ignoring shouts from the clerk and stunned looks from the other customers along with some bystanders.

Caleb says nothing, just giving him an amused look once in a while when he drove them back home.

“Alright, Con. Here’s your burg and Hank’s. Good luck on the date!” Caleb says with a wink, shoving two burgers into Connor’s hands.

“It’s not a date, Caleb.” Connor replies with rosy cheeks, but accepts the burgers anyway and walks to the pool area, where he sees Hank is reading ‘Cujo’ out loud to Sumo, who doesn’t understand a thing but entertained by Hank’s rumbly voice anyway.

“Hey pup. Welcome back.” Hank greets him as he closes the book and turns to face Connor. Oh? Hank is…different that before. He’s normal now.

“Yeah. I brought you something to try. I hope you like it.” Connor replies as he sits down next to Hank and gently pushes Sumo away from the burgers, “Down, Sumo. It’s not for you, it’s for me and Hank.” He tells the big canine, who just huffs at him in the face before he lays down on the floor.

“Here you go, Hank.” Connor gives Hank the burger as he opens his. Hank watches him open the box as he did the same carefully. Connor smiles and takes out the burger with his hands, stopping to let Hank follows his step. Then he takes a bite out of the burger, chewing on it and keeps watching Hank as he follows the step.

“ _Oh_.” Hank breathes out as his eyes sharp blue eyes glints in awe.

“How is it? Do you like it?” Connor asks.

“It’s amazing. But there’s something sour in it. Overall, it’s all great.” Hank answers with toothy grin, his tail flopping lightly to the water.

“Yeah, the clerk is being an asshole by putting pickles in it even though I already told him not to. So I took it out and threw it to his face.” Hank laughs at that answer before ruffling Connor’s hair and throws the rest of the burger into his wide jaw, eating it in one go.

“Are you thinking of start giving me cooked foods?” Hank asks and Connor nods as he continues on eating his burger.

“Yes. And if you don’t mind, it’s also to get to know more about your preferences and if you have food allergies.” Connor replies, “I…just wanted to know more about your people, if you don’t mind about it.”

“Nah. It’s alright by me. And, uhh, it’s the least I can do in return for saving me.” Hank says with cheeks tinted in blue.

“But are you sure about it?” Connor asks with serious look, “I…I need your consent, Hank. I don’t want to force myself on you.” He continues before he realizes his ambiguous words and blushes a bit from that.

“Consent…means permission or agreement to do something, right?” Hank asks and puts his hand to Connor’s head, “It’s alright, guppy. You have my full consent. I trust you, after all. Like I said, it’s the least I can do to repay you anyway.” He grins calmly as he gently pets Connor’s head.

G-guppy…?

“A-alright then.” Connor softly replies with red face, slowly continue on eating his burger as Hank pulls his hand away and slips into the water before he emerges back out to watch Connor eating.

“I heard…it’s your…birthday?” Hank asks, unsure about it.

“Yes. Today is mine, Caleb, and Collin’s birthday. We’re triplets, so we have the same birthday, if you’re wondering.” Connor answers after he finished his burger and wipes his hands to his shorts.

“Triplets?” Hank asks.

“Yes. We’re fraternal triplets, so we don’t look alike to each other. Do you have siblings, Hank?” Connor asks back in interest.

“I think I do. It’s already a long time ago since I saw them.” Hank answers with a shrug, “My people have this tradition where you can choose to stay in the pack or make your own pack somewhere when you’re an adult. Or they died, I don’t really remember.”

“O-oh. How many siblings you have?”

“One, I think? Or more, but I can’t really remember. I’m the youngest, so I don’t really know if I have more older siblings, but I only remember one before he left.”

“Is he the same one as you? A Shortfin Mako shark?”

“No. I think he’s an Orca, like ma. He’s pretty strong and braver than the others in the pack, if I’m not misremembering. He’s pretty cool, but he’s an annoying brother. He’s far older than me, so he left the pack first.”

“Say Hank. Can your people…actually use magic? We, uhh, ‘humans’ like to think about you people are ‘magical’.”

“Oh, so you land creatures are called ‘humans’… And no, not really. Only leader of the pack can use…magic, I think. It’s been awhile since I’m in a pack.”

“So you’ve been traveling alone? With the seal?”

“Yes. I was searching for my late mate that some humans caught her, but I know she’s not going to come back, so I just…travelling in the sea with my friend before some humans got me.”

“I…see. I’m sorry to hear that.” Connor apologizes. He’s suspecting that the poor mermaid was Hank’s late mate, but he can be wrong anyway. Besides, he can’t really tell Hank about it. Not yet anyway. Maybe one day he can ask Hank about it, but not now. He’s not ready yet to tell Hank about it, and what kind of reaction Hank will give him.

Maybe one day.

“Shouldn’t you celebrate your birthday, Konnorr?” Hank asks Sumo tries to lick off the water from his face, which at the same time Gavin walks into the pool area.

“Hey, Connor. It’s time for your appearance. Caleb and Collin are waiting.” Gavin says before he leaves.

“I guess I should go. If you need me, just tells Sumo to go get me, okay? I’ll go run to you immediately.” Connor tells Hank.

“Yeah, sure thing pup. Now go celebrate your birthday, and happy birthday to you and both Kalebb and Kollin.” Hank replies and waves his hand at Connor. Connor waves back before he left the pool to attend his birthday party.

Right as Connor disappear from sight, Hank grunts in pain and went to curl up at the bottom of the pool.

**…**

“…nk! …ank!”

Warm.

“Han…! Oh…od…ase don…be dead!”

Ugh, what’s that loud voice. His stomach is already hurts like hell. He doesn’t need more pain in his head.

“He’s…ill breat…so I thi…he’s ali…”

Hank grunts in pain as he tries to curl up again, but something around him shifts as he moves.

“May…it’s food poiso…? Oh wai…! The pickle juice residue in the burger!”

Hank whimpers as he grabs onto something and curls into the warmth. Please stop talking. Everything sounds so loud. It hurts.

“Everyone, try to lower your voices. I think it’s bothering him.”

“We gotta make him puke it all out. Help me out to carry him inside to the bathroom.”

Hank whimpers in pain as arms curl up around him. He tries to return the gesture but his body won’t fully do what he wants. He also feels more arms around his tail.

He’s moved to somewhere.

“Nngh…water…drying…” Hank croaks out and coughs.

“Hang in there for a moment, Hank. We’re taking you to the bathroom and then we’ll soak you up before you let out everything in your stomach, okay?”

He grunts weakly and coughs again. It’s alright. ‘Konnorr’ and the others are here. Everything is okay. He trusts ‘Konnorr’.

“Alright, put him down. I’ll take care of him from now on. Thank you for helping me out.”

“No problem. Just call us if you need help again.”

Hank sighs in relief as he feels water running along his back and slowly soaking him up to his head. He just realizes that he’s in a small room and he’s apparently hugging a…toilet while ‘Konnorr’ is soaking him up with…shower.

“Alright, Hank. I need you to try and puke everything out that’s in your stomach into the toilet bowl, okay? Can you do it yourself or do you need my help?”

‘Puke it out’? How??? He never vomits anything he ever ate before.

“How…?” Hank asks weakly as he slowly turns to look at ‘Konnorr’.

“I guess you don’t know how. Do you want me to do it in a fast but unpleasant way? Or in a much safer way?” ‘Konnorr’ asks in pure concern on their face.

“Whatever.” Hank replies.

“Alright then. Can you open your mouth?” ‘Konnorr’ asks and he obliges, wondering out what ‘Konnorr’ is going to do. Hank flinches in surprise when ‘Konnorr’ shoves their hand into his mouth and touches the back of his throat. He gags in reflex and right as ‘Konnorr’ pulls their hand away, he expels out the content in his stomach into the toilet bowl.

Hank heaves everything out for a while as ‘Konnorr’ strokes his fin lightly and pulls his silver hair back gently. He coughs a few times and spits out his saliva before ‘Konnorr’ pulls him away from the toilet bowl into their arms and…flushes the toilet.

“There you go. There you go. You did great, Hank. I’m proud of you.” ‘Konnorr’ praises him as he curls to ’Konnorr’s side and ‘Konnorr’ pets his back and his fin. “I’m gonna sue that bastard of a clerk.” ‘Konnorr’ softly adds angrily.

“…sorry…for ruining…your birthday…” Hank croaks out and ‘Konnorr’ lets out a breathy laugh.

“Silly Hank. It’s not your fault, Hank. It’s alright, as long as you’re getting better after this, it’s a great birthday gift for me.” ‘Konnorr’ tells him, “Caleb, can you grab me a full glass of water please?”

“Sure thing bro.”

Hank and ‘Konnorr’ stay there quietly before ‘Konnorr’ offers him a glass of water. Hank accepts it slowly and drinks it bit by bit until it’s empty. ‘Konnorr’ takes the glass and put it on the floor before they helps Hank up and puts him into the bathtub. Then ‘Konnorr’ slowly fills the tub with water using the shower thing.

“I hope you don’t mind to stay here for a while. I know the tub is too small compared to the pool for you, but I can check on you easier and faster. Are you okay with it?”

“Mm’okay.”

Hank lets out a sigh as ‘Konnorr’ strokes his face gently.

He’s still feel bad for ruining ‘Konnorr’s and their siblings’ birthday, but he’s glad that ‘Konnorr’ is here to take care of him.

Everything’s alright now.

**…**

“Hank. Have you ever seen this logo?” Hank turns and sees a blue triangle logo that ‘Konnorr’ drew a few moments ago. He frowns and knits his eyebrows together as his tail twitches in annoyance.

“Yeah, I sure have.” Hank growls out in annoyance, “Seen it on many boats when I was swimming in the sea with Smotyn*** before I got harpooned.”

“Smotyn?” ‘Konnorr’ asks in confusion.

“Yeah! Smotyn the seal. My travelling companion.” Hank answers.

“I see. So you’ve seen them for a while then?” ‘Konnorr’ asks and he nods.

“Yeah. They’re scaring off the fishes and they’re really noisy. It’s like they’re using something to emit sharp sound. It really hurts my head and ears that time.” Hank complains.

“Could it be…ultrasonic sound? Or maybe low-frequency sound emitter?” ‘Konnorr’ asks, but Hank shrugs.

“I have no idea. Could be both or something.” Hank answers.

“I see.” ‘Konnorr’ says and presses their foreheads together. Hank blushes a bit as ‘Konnorr’ moves back a bit and the tip of their noses brushes each other.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Hank.”

“N-no problem, Konnorr.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S MAKO SHARK FACTS TIME!
> 
> 1\. The Mako Shark, also called Isurus in the scientific community, is an incredible and extremely fast beast. Today, there are only two living species of Mako remaining. They are called the Longfin Makos (Isurus Paucus) and the Shortfin Makos (Isurus oxyrinchus).  
> (Hank is the latter one!)
> 
> 2\. Both species are easily identified due to their strange (and mean looking) teeth. These teeth are visible even when their mouths are closed. For simple identification, the Mako tends to look like a smaller version of the Great White Shark.  
> (Hank's teeth are not exactly the same as his fish part, but it's still sharp!)
> 
> 3\. This shark loves jumping out of the water. Scientists still aren’t sure why they do this, but it’s theorized that they are searching for prey over the water surface. And this is the fastest shark species in the world. They average an incredible 60mph when hunting for prey!  
> (Remember when Hank jumps out from the pool to 'save' Connor? I hope you still do!)
> 
> 4\. The mako shark has another unique feature that sets it apart from other sharks. Most sharks use a powerful electroreceptive organ in the front of their snouts called the ampullae of lorenzini to detect electrical impulses from their prey, while the mako shark relies almost exclusively on their vision, smell, and hearing to successfully find food.  
> (That's why Hank has great senses and able to spot which one is Connor's voice and which ones are not, and how he smells nice! And he also can see in the dark better because sharks have a layer of reflective crystals just behind their retinas! Because of that, his eyes are actually reflective toward light sources!)
> 
> 5\. Mako sharks have the largest brain-to-body ratio of any shark. In a variety of laboratory tests, makos would even let researchers handle them and would not fight back after they learned the people were no longer a danger.  
> (Merfolks are all curious and fast-learners but they're timid creatures, that's why they're mostly still communicate to each other primitively and avoid human-invested areas! Not only because of merfolks learning period is mostly the same as humans with middle-upper IQ, but their other half is what boosted the learning period even more! And unfortunately, it will only happen if they're put in a socially active areas! That's why Hank able to read and talk faster when Connor and the others are around!)
> 
> *Sere : Shortened word for серебро (serebro), meaning 'silver' in Russian. Hank's childhood name that was given by his mother, an orca mermaid, because of his hair color. :3  
> (I choose the name because it's easy to say for the merfolk's tongue lmao)
> 
> **Pickles : Remember when i said Gavin's eye colors are pickle color? :D
> 
> ***Smotyn : Meaning 'spots' in Welsh. Hank was inspired by Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of hell, when Connor tells him about it. The seal actually doesn't have any spots on the body and his real name is Bob. ;)))


	7. Land and Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Biology is fun, right?
> 
> ;)))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _**land** _   
>  _/land/_   
>  _noun_   
>  _the part of the earth's surface that is not covered by water, as opposed to the sea or the air._
> 
> _**sea** _   
>  _/sē/_   
>  _noun_   
>  _the expanse of salt water that covers most of the earth's surface and surrounds its landmasses._

“Alright Hank. I’m gonna take a little bit of your blood, are you ready?”

“Just do it already, tadpole.”

Connor lets out a breathy chuckle as he carefully inserts the needle and takes Hank’s blue colored blood until it’s full. He slowly takes the needle out and puts the needle down, quickly put small gauze to the needle wound. Hank is flinching ever so slightly when he put the needle in, but other than that, he’s pretty calm and relaxed.

“There you go. You did great, despite you never see a needle before and this is the first time your blood got taken by a big one.” Connor praises with a smile as he finished dealing with the needle wound.

“There’s a small one!?” Hank asks in shock. Betrayal!

“There is, but it’s not enough for taking blood. I use it only to give medication, not taking blood.” Connor explains calmly with a smile, “I’m taking your blood to be a sample and to check what’s in it. Don’t let water touch the needle wound, alright? And unlike human blood, yours is actually colored blue and when I shake it a bit, it glows for a moment. I was suspecting there’s some kind of bioluminescence reaction.”

“Human blood didn’t glow?” Hank asks in pure confusion.

“No. Our blood is colored dark red and will turn dark brown if left off to dry in the open. Your blood on the harpoon months ago seems to vanish when it was left in the open just for a day, but if I use black light, I can see it.” Connor explains.

“Our blood always has been like that. You ever see the sea illuminate before?” Hank grins when Connor nods innocently before his expression changes to a shock and disbelief.

“D-don’t tell me it’s your people’s bloods…”

“Sorry, pup. But it’s the truth.”

“But why? What happened?”

“Either it’s a pack fight, or a normal seasonal fight-to-death. It seems that because our blood is blue and easy to dissolve in water, it only leaves the glow.” Hank shrugs as he takes a magazine and shows Connor a section that talks about how amazing and pretty the ‘glowing’ sea is, “It seems you humans take it as something beautiful and not something horrifying as blood in the sea, so I think everything’s good. Besides, it’s still a pretty normal thing to happen to my people when it’s mating season.” He adds with a small laugh.

“I thought mating season is different to each of you.”

“It is, but there are many of us deep underwater that are basically have the same mating season time. Us…uhh, what do you always call us? Merfolks? Yeah. Us merfolks can live real deep underwater that the sunlight can’t reach the water. We don’t really need air to live, that’s why you humans rarely see us in the upper water unless we’re hunting food.” Hank explains as he reads the magazine calmly, “Unless they’re the ones who need air to breathe and have only lungs instead of with gills. Those ones are real friendly to humans and aren’t shy to show up to humans, but they’re still smart enough than dealing with and getting real close to humans. At least that’s what I heard from my pack.”

“I see.” Connor is beyond fascinated when Hank tells him about merfolks. He never thought that there are many merfolks deep underwater, and there are the ones that only have lungs to breathe. Such diversity from each one of them and they’re all live peacefully in the same water unless it’s mating season. They all live in groups, either small group consist of few family head and the leader of the group, or a very big one with one leader and several ministers. Basically like a town and/or a kingdom. Hank said that he used to live in the very big one group, but his family and some others left to make their own group (or pack) to the upper water. That’s where he met his late mate and the reason why she got caught by humans. And Hank also said that even though his parents are different kind of marine life (his mother is an orca mermaid while his father is a mako shark merman), they still can have children, but a separate kind of marine life and not a mixed one. It’s always been the same as one of the parents and never a mixed between both. How intriguing!

“How about you, Connor?” Hank asks and snaps Connor out from his thoughts, “What kind of people are you guys?”

“Uhh, umm. We’re all different too. We’re all differentiate from each other from our skin colors, hair colors, eye colors, ethnics, countries, sexualities, genders, languages, religions. We’re all different to each other.” Connor answers, “But unlike merfolks, if our parents are different from each other, the children will be either a mixed or the same as one of the parents. It’s up to which DNA is the strongest, I suppose.” He adds with a small chuckle.

“You’re all different to each other and you humans know that you’re all different. But if that’s the case, shouldn’t you guys accept each other and be friends to each other?” Hank wonders out, “You humans are so weird. You guys are smarter than us merfolks, but none of you are able to stand each other’s differences, or try to compete to each other for…what? Fame? Territory? Money? Ideas? It doesn’t make sense at all.”

“Humans are weird, indeed. We’re all trying to compete with each other for vain things. We’re all egoistical creatures inside.” Connor agrees, “But at the same time, it’s also the things that made the world colorful and unique. Imagine if every each of us is the same. It will be super boring and monotone, right? Imagine if the books you’ve read have the same plot and genre. Won’t it be boring because you already know the main plot key of the book?” He points out with a smile

Hank just stares at Connor before he looks away as he partially hide his face using the magazine in his hands.

“I-I guess you’re right.” Hank replies with slightly muffled voice. “Hey Kon? What’s your job for a living? And your siblings too.” Hank asks. He’s slightly missing the two members of the triplets, as they already went back to their daily lives a week ago and they went back here just to celebrate their birthday together.

“I work as the Head Marine Biologist at Jericho Marine Conservation, but I took a paid-leave to take care and get to know more about you. I’ve been working there for around five years now.” Connor answers, “Caleb is a lawyer, while Collin is a police detective.”

“What’s a ‘paid-leave’?”

“Paid-leave means I don’t go to my workplace, but I will still be paid. Markus let me take it so I can take care of you. In exchange, I did reports on your progress every week to him. I hope you don’t mind.” Connor answers and Hank snorts as he’s back on reading the magazine.

“Markhus is fine. He’s your friend, and Saimon too.” Hank replies, shifting a bit in the tub and making the water get overflowed a bit as he shifts down deeper into the tub. “What’s your relationship with those two other than friends, though?” He asks.

“Markus is my boss and the CEO of Jericho Marine Conservation, while Simon is the second-in-command and Markus’ husband.” Connor answers, “I knew them from my college days and we’ve been friends since then. There are also North and Josh, but you have yet to meet them. Maybe someday, you’ll meet them. I think you’ll like both of them too. North is a fiery woman, while Josh is a brainy man.”

“They sound like great friends.” Hank says. Connor smiles warmly at that before he starts gathering his things. Hank blushes a bit and hides his bluish face using the magazine, but Connor doesn’t notice it.

“Well then. I’ll go put this away first, then I’ll make breakfast. Anything you want, Hank?” Connor asks.

“5 bacons, 3 eggs, and 4 toasts.” Connor gives Hank a scolding glare at that answer.

“I’m sorry Hank. But I can’t give you too many foods. I need to cut down your ‘snacks’ too. You’re getting fatter and too much is not good for you.” Connor answers as he points at Hank’s tummy folds, “Maybe I should bring you back to the pool after I’m done studying you—oh.” Alright that sounds pretty wrong. He doesn’t mean to phrase it that way!

“I’d tell you when I get enough, guppy!” Hank exclaims, his tail flopping angrily and eyebrows knit close together. Oh, he’s angry and flopping his tail like an actual fish out of water. And he doesn’t seem to spot the ambiguous word Connor used, so everything seems good.

“I think I still need to take you back to the pool. The tub is not big enough for you, after all. It’s not good for your back because your body posture stayed in the same pose for hours.” Connor replies, “Now, be good while I go do my stuffs, alright Hank? I’ll be right back with your breakfast and more books for you to read after that.” He adds before he steps out from the bathroom, leaving the door wide open in case Hank needs something.

Connor walks into his private laboratory and puts the blood-filled needle into a container. He will deal with it later tonight, but right now he needs to make breakfast for both of him and Hank. He walks to the kitchen and starts to fry the bacons along with the eggs. He puts two slices of bread into the toaster and pours himself a mug of coffee, adding sugar and cream in it. He sips on it before he puts it down and focuses back to the bacon and the eggs. He grabs two plates and puts 4 strips of bacon, an egg, and a toast on each plate. He puts both plates on a tray and he grabs his coffee along with forks as he walks back to the bathroom.

“Here you go, Hank.” Connor says as he gives Hank a plate, “It’s still a bit hot and here’s your fork if you need it.” He adds as he gives the fork.

“Thanks.” They both eat in silence. Hank carefully but clumsily tried to use the fork, but fortunately no further accident happens unlike two days ago where Hank accidentally broke the plate in half because of how much pressure he gave when he stabbed a piece of meat.

Connor sips his coffee and realizes that Hank is looking at him.

“What’s wrong, Hank?” Connor asks.

“What’s that? It smells good.” Hank points out as he sniffs the air.

“It’s coffee. Do you want to try?” Hank nods and Connor gives him his coffee mug. Hank carefully holds it and drinks it slowly. The look Hank produces when the bean water touched his tongue is hilariously amusing. It’s like he just saw the world’s most mysterious treasure and he’s holding it in his hands.

“I take it you like it?” Connor asks with amused look as Hank sips on the coffee once more, his tail twitches in the water with sharp blue eyes glints in fascination, “If that’s the case, I will bring you coffee sometimes in the morning.” He continues and chuckles softly as Hank just silently nods eagerly.

“Do you want the same one as this, or purely just coffee with no sugar and no cream? If it’s just coffee, it’s pretty bitter.” Connor asks.

“Same one as this, please. Also, can I drink this?” Hank replies. Connor smiles before nodding as an answer. Hank chirps happily as he slowly sips on the coffee again. Hank never really chirps anymore, just occasionally when he’s happy. It’s good to know that Hank likes coffee and he’s happy for it.

“Hey Kon. You gotta introduce me with some foods someday. I saw in this magazine about this ‘pizza’ food and this ‘spaghetti’ food. They look good.” Hank points out as he puts down the coffee mug and grabs the magazine from before, flipping through the pages and shows it to Connor when he found it. Hmm. He is thinking the same actually. He wants to introduce Hank to various foods to familiarize him with the taste, finding out if there are any more food allergies (he already know that pickles is off limits), and to ease him out on the budget for feeding Hank. He still needs to give Hank raw fishes sometimes, so he won’t get too content with cooked foods when he returns to the sea.

“Sure. I’ll ask my friend to teach me how to make those. It will be healthier and cheaper than buying it.” Connor can try asking Simon about it, or do it himself by looking it up on wikihow.

“Great! But I wanna try this ‘ice cream’ thing right now. Can you get me one, Kon?” Hank asks as he points at a scooped ice cream picture on the magazine.

“I would, but you just ate breakfast, Hank. Overeating is not good for your health.” Connor replies and he can see Hank seems deflated on that. “Unless you’re cooperating with me on examining your physical anatomy, I will make you an ice cream as a return, along with pizza and pasta. Are you okay with that?”

“Sure. I told you I trust you, Konnorr. I know you won’t hurt me on purpose, so I’m perfectly okay. I gave you my consent already from a week ago.” Hank answers in return, expression bright and tail twitching in the water.

“…Alright then, Hank. Thank you again for giving me permission. I’m gonna go wash the dishes and will be back with books for you to read while I examine your blood. Any particular book you want to read?” Connor asks as he gathers the empty dishes onto the tray.

“Anything is okay.” Hank replies and drinks the coffee before giving the empty mug to Connor. Connor gently wipes the coffee residue from Hank’s upper lip before he puts the mug to the tray and leaves the bathroom, not spotting Hank’s frozen stature and blue blushing face.

“…fucking human…”

**…**

_[“So there are many of them deep underwater?”]_

“Yes. Most of them don’t need to go to the surface level other than hunting for foods. And they all mostly live together in groups, either small group that consists of few or several merfolks, or big group that can be portrayed as a kingdom of sorts, if I exaggerated a bit.” Connor explains, “And this morning I just took Hank’s blood and examined it. Based on my observation, the blood is glowing when there’s movement that breaks the calm. And according to Hank’s blood I just ‘scoped, unlike human’s blood, there’s something else in it that makes it look blue and evaporate in the open air. From the data, it’s named ‘Thirium’. Just like hemoglobin in human’s blood, Thirium is the main blood cell. A blue blood cell, I suppose.”

_[“What about Hank’s condition now?”]_

“He’s stable. The wound on his back already fully healed up. It scarred, but he seems okay with it. There’s a food poisoning accident a week ago on August 15th, but it’s over by the next day. He’s cooperating well with me, which is good. He’s getting fatter though, as I put him in the bathtub to get faster on examining him and he didn’t get to move around so much.” Connor says as he scratches Cookie’s chin, “I suppose after I finish examining his physical anatomy, I’ll return him back to the pool so he gets to move around and burns off the fats. And he’s managing well with his seasonal heat too. But I don’t know how it will affect him when I do physical examination.”

_[“Hmm. It seems he’s doing very well. He’s developing pretty fast, and for a species that’s basically primitive too. Oh! And how’s his opinion towards humans or the land world in general?”]_

“He still has some grudges toward humans, but it’s mostly just because of what humans did to him and that’s all. Apparently some humans took away his late mate, and he at first traveled the sea to search for her. But in the end, he knows that she won’t come back, so he just, travels the sea with a seal as his companion with no apparent plans in mind. Then he got harpooned and I saved him.” Connor answers, “He…seems to trust me so much that I’m afraid that I’ll accidentally use it for something bad. I won’t do anything bad on him, of course! It’s good to know that he trusts me and actually cares about me back.”

_[“Well, it sounds to me that Hank likes you, Connor. What did you say again that time on your birthday about his mating season? Oh yes, he’s very affectionate towards you. You said that it’s because of his hormones, but I think there’s something more about it.”]_

“Markus not again…” Connor groans while Markus laughs.

_[“I think I’m right, though. He seems to care a lot about you, and with or without hormones wreaking havoc in him, it seems genuine enough. But like you said, it is better not to mess around with him until his mating season is over. It can be dangerous, after all. But I’m sure he won’t try to hurt you on purpose despite this is the time where violence is pretty prone for the sake of winning the female.”]_

“Yes, I’m thinking the same about it too. But he’s very calm most of the time I’m with him.”  Connor replies. “I think that’s all I have to report. I’ll contact you again at the same time next week. Thank you again, Markus. Tell the others I said hi.”

_[“Will do, Connor. Take care, both of you.”]_

And just like that, the call ends.

Connor stretches out as Cookie jumps down from his lap. What a day. The day is not even over yet and he’s already tired. He still needs to do grocery shopping and check on Hank before he left. But his mind drifts away to what Markus is saying before. He just realizes that Markus is implying that Hank likes Connor in a different way. That can’t be true, right? They both are different and Hank probably only interested to women. This is basically like saying a dog and a fish are in love with each other.

Connor groans out frustratingly as he wipes his face with his palms and stands up. No, he shouldn’t put his feelings into this. He has to be professional and be a good friend for Hank, and then he will return Hank back into the sea. He’s sure that Hank misses his seal friend back in the sea too. Hank barely can survive on land without water to soak him up constantly too.

He can’t take Hank’s happiness for his happiness.

“Hank, I’m going out for a while. Do you want something before I go?” Connor asks as he peeks in his head to the bathroom, where he sees Hank yelping out with a book in hand, which almost fell into the water if Hank didn’t quickly catch it back.

“K-Konnorr! You scared the shit outta me!” Hank exclaims out with blue face, pulling close his tail to his chest. Hmm? How peculiar. Hank actually knows curse words now? He just left him for a few hours with some books and now he knows curse words? Connor wants to be proud but its curse words, so he’s in slight dilemma.

“Are you alright? Your face is completely blue. Is your heat hour coming back?” Connor asks in concern as he steps into the bathroom.

“I’m perfectly fine, so get out now! Just get me ice cream, so go! Now!” Hank exclaims out in a fluster. But Connor is not having it.

“Are you sure? Do you need something else before I go out?” Connor asks calmly as he puts a hand to Hank’s warm forehead.

“No! Unless you have something to help me out through my mating season! But if you don’t, then no!” Hank replies, as his shoulders dusted with blue colorings.

Oh?

**_Oh._ **

“Hank did you just masturbate—“

**“Just go, you fucking human!”**

**…**

In the end, ‘Konnorr’ finally leaves him alone to do grocery shopping with an amused smile.

Hank groans in frustration as he tries to submerge himself in the tub, but his tail is too long, thus resulting part of his tail to slip out from the tub to the wall. He flaps his tail in annoyance against the wall, causing wet flaps heard in the bathroom.

This sucks.

He just realizes how much he hates this time of the year. How much his body craves for warmth of someone else. How much his body craves for something to fill, either into him or into something else. Or how much the condition of his body makes his mood get ugly. And by the day, the urge is getting stronger in a very steadily slow manner.

What’s the human term for this again? He read it once in a book. ‘Edgy’? No, that’s not quite right, but maybe pretty close to that.

At this rate, he can accidentally channel the frustration onto ‘Konnorr’.

No. He doesn’t want that.

Maybe he can sleep it off?

…No. He tried once, and it actually gets worse to the point just a slight skin-to-skin contact with ‘Konnorr’ and any things with their scent attached on those things puts him in a trance.

Maybe if he did it again like before? It works before, so maybe it’ll work again?

Gosh, this is the most frustrating mating season he ever experienced, and it just fucking started.

Curse his people’s…physiology…bullshit.

But there’s no other choice.

Better do it now and get it over with or fucking die of embarrassment if ‘Konnorr’ spots him again.

Hank gulps as he sits up straight, hands trailing down to his cloaca and his eyes never leaving his hands. Slowly spreading it open and—

“Boof!”

“AAH—FUCK!!”

Hank yelps in pain as he slams his head to the wall, whimpering in pain as slowly slips back into the tub and holding the back of his head while ‘Summo’ pants out happily and licks Hank’s face.

“Nnghh…not you again, Summo. I’m trying to channel out my frustration, stop stopping me every time I’m about to do it…!” Hank says as he tries to push ‘Summo’ away from licking his face, but so far, he never manages to stop the surprisingly strong hairy oaf. “This is the sixth time already, Summo! You gotta understand!” He adds in frustration, but the Saint Bernard just barks and even jumps into the tub with him to shower him with more kisses of drools.

In the end, Hank gives up and let the dog to shower him with dog version of affections until ‘Konnorr’ eventually came back.

Ugh, there goes his chance. Gone along with the droplets on his face and beard that got exchanged by dog drools.

“Are you okay? You seem frustrated over something.” ‘Konnorr’ asks in concern as he’s drying ‘Summo’ up with a towel, who seems really happy that his human companion is back.

“Ish nothin’.” Hank replies in slight annoyance as he slowly licks his vanilla ice cream. ‘Konnorr’ just gives him confused stare before their brown eyes twinkle in something that grabs Hank’s attention.

“Did Sumo blocks you when you’re about to masturbate?” ‘Konnorr’ asks in amusement with a smile while Hank freezes up at that and his blood rushes to his head so fast that he feels dizzy.

“T-Tadpole!” Hank hisses out in pure embarrassment while ‘Konnorr’ laughs in return.

“You know, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s a normal scientific thing to happen when it’s mating season—“

“Yes I get it already! Please don’t continue that sentence and actually kills me in embarrassment!” Hank quickly replies and grumbles in embarrassment as he continues eating his ice cream and curses softly when he eats the ice cream too fast that he can feel his heart burns a bit.

“I actually bought you a device to help you out through your mating season. It’s up to you if you want to use it or not. But if you don’t mind, I would like to examine your semen too—“

“W-what!?”

“I bought you a sex toy or something like that. I never really know the differences between some sex toys with a hole, so I just bought the one that looks neutral of them all. This is the first time I bought a sex toy and I must say it’s a pretty daring and weird experience for me.” ‘Konnorr’ says as they holds out a box with such naïve interest glint in their brown eyes while looking at the box.

Now Hank really wonders if ‘Konnorr’ has any shame at all, just thinks that it’s all for science, just wants to kill Hank with embarrassment, or the three of them at the same time.

But ‘Konnorr’ is trying their best to help him, so he’s grateful for it.

“U-uhh, t-thanks, I suppose.” Hank says as he shyly accepts the box. “How…to actually use it exactly?” He asks with a side look to ‘Konnorr’, slightly concern about the answer that ‘Konnorr’ will give him when he sees the same interested look ‘Konnorr’ gives him.

“Oh, I can help you up if you want—“

“Never mind. I think I can find out how to do it myself.” Hank quickly replies in completely embarrassment as he slightly hides his face behind the box in his hands. He can’t believe ‘Konnorr’ is the first human he met and knows better that anyone he ever met in his life other than his mother and his long lost brother that doesn’t seem to get embarrassed over something like this.

“Alright then. And if you don’t mind, can I have your semen to analyze after you use it?” ‘Konnorr’ asks.

“…Sure.” In the end, Hank can’t really refuse whatever ‘Konnorr’ wants from him especially when they (either consciously or unconsciously) gives him a puppy dog eyes look every time they wants something from him and makes his heart beats faster the longer they gives him that look.

“Good! Just try not to let water slips into it too, alright? And call me out right after you got it out. After all, human semen isn’t doing great in warm open air, so maybe yours too.” ‘Konnorr’ replies as they stands up, “Come, Sumo. We should give Hank some privacy to relieve himself.” ‘Konnorr’ says as they pulls ‘Summo’ along out from the bathroom and closes the door on their way out.

…Hank can’t believe ‘Konnorr’ is like that.

But he supposes he can’t refuse this opportunity.

This is for ‘Konnorr’s safety and for his hormones’ own good.

Let’s see. It’s said that it’s a ‘waterproof masturbation cup’ and it’s…electric? All he needs to do is just put his phallus into the hole then turn it on…? Uhh. There are several vibration types…? What???

…wait if it’s electric, doesn’t it mean that it needs electricity? Or use that battery thing?

Hank peers in closer to the buttons of the bizarre thing in his hands and presses one, flinches a bit when the thing letting out vibrations but recovers a bit and peers into the hole. Hmm. It’s moving inside. What a weird device. Humans have weird things, just like that ‘phone’ device.

He turns it off and carefully slips himself out from the tub to the floor. He once slipped out from the tub and face-planted onto the floor, which giving him nosebleed and teary eyed while ‘Konnorr’ took care of him. It was really painful.

Hank gulps as he braces his heart to do this. He lets his phallus to slips out from his cloaca slowly and looks at it. Ugh. It’s giving bluish color at the tip. This never happened before and he hopes the vibrating cup device will help him up with this. So he slowly slips the cup thing to his phallus and bites his lower lip to stop himself from letting out embarrassing noise until he can’t put his phallus entirely in the cup.

Fucking hell.

Alright. Here it goes…

**…**

Outside the bathroom, Connor is crouching on the floor with his hands covering his red face, contemplating his life choices while Sumo is just confused on what Connor is doing in front of the closed bathroom door.

He can’t believe he managed to put neutral face for a whole fifteen minutes while he’s inside the bathroom.

Ah but, Hank’s blushing and embarrassed face is kinda cute, so it’s kinda win-win situation, now that Hank agrees to let him have his…his semen…to analyze. Connor is actually curious about merman’s semen. Does it have the same color, density, smell, and taste like human male’s semen? Does it have the same biochemical as its human counterpart?

Still, Connor can’t wait to analyze it later.

…and he’s kinda feeling sorry for Hank and hopes that Hank didn’t see him as a pervert.

Connor sighs heavily as he carefully cuts the carrot. He’s making stew for dinner, but stew needs a few hours to be completely ready to eat, so he starts now. Stew is also one of two foods he mastered to cook, as stew can be frozen and thawed for future needs. Maybe one day, he can make curry too.

He just hopes Hank’s okay with the spiciness though.

Connor freezes up when he hears a moan when he walks past the bathroom. He quickens his strides going upstairs to grab his charged phone as he hears a grunt from the bathroom. He’s happy for Hank, but at the same time this is like finding out your roommate is masturbating in the next room to yours, which is technically right, because Hank is his housemate and he is masturbating.

It’s kinda of an embarrassing thing to encounter, if Connor being honest.

“…K-Konnorr…!”

…Oh.

Well, this is awkward.

It seems Hank even realizes what he just did that the bathroom fall silent right after that.

Connor walks downstairs calmly and approaches the bathroom, knocking on the door gently.

“Hank…? Are you okay?” Connor asks calmly. He tries not to think about the time Hank moans out his name, because Hank’s current situation is much more important. He waits for a while until he hears movements from inside and the door opens a bit. Connor crouches down to face-to-face with Hank’s blue face.

“Here.” Hank quickly gives Connor the masturbation cup device before he slams the door close. Connor can hear Hank is pulling himself back into the bathtub and everything fell silent after that. He looks down to the device in his hand and sniffs a bit. It smells sour and he can see that it’s colored bluish white. It appears that Hank produced more semen than normal human male; either it’s a merfolk thing or just Hank.

“Thank you, Hank. And don’t think about it, alright? I’m fine with it.” Connor reassures Hank, but he gets no answer. “Just call me out if you need me, alright Hank?”

“…Y-yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LETS TALK MORE ABOUT SHARKS!
> 
> 1\. Sharks are cartilaginous. What makes sharks different from fish is that their skeletons are made of cartilage instead of bone.  
> (Not mersharks though. All merfolks have bones even in their fish parts.)
> 
> 2\. Sharks are also different from bony fish because they have eyelids.
> 
> 3\. Unlike fish, sharks can only swim forward. That is because their fins are stiff and cannot be controlled by muscles.
> 
> 4\. Sharks stay buoyant because of their light weight cartilage skeletons. They also have really oily livers which helps them stay balanced in deeper waters.
> 
> 5\. The smallest shark is the dwarf lantern that is only grows to six inches and the largest is the whale shark that grows to a whopping 41.5 feet in length.
> 
> 6\. The largest shark to ever live was the massive Megalodon that averaged 50 feet in length. Don’t worry though, these terrifying sharks have been extinct for 16 million years.
> 
> 7\. The oldest known species of living shark in the goblin shark that has been around for 120 million years. The second oldest is the frilled shark that has been around for 80 million years.
> 
> 8\. You can measure the age of a shark by counting the rings on its vertebrae.
> 
> 9\. Most sharks never sleep because they have to constantly pump water through their mouth over their gills to breath or they will die.  
> (Not mersharks though. They all can still breathe underwater even when they're asleep and unmoving.)
> 
> 10\. Sharks have an amazing sense of hearing. They can hear prey up to 3000 feet away. Their ears are actually located inside of their heads.
> 
> 11\. Sharks living deep in the water tend to have light color eyes to help them attract more light, while sharks living closer to the surface have darker colored eyes to shield them from the light.
> 
> 12\. Sharks communicate through body language. Some common communications involve zigzag swimming, head shaking, hunched backs, and head butts.
> 
> 13\. Sharks do not have vocal cords, so they make no sounds. That is why they are known as the “silent killers.”
> 
> 14\. Size also determines where a shark hunts. Smaller sharks tend to hunt along the ocean floor, while larger sharks hunt in the middle and by the surface.
> 
> 15\. Sharks have few natural predators. Killer whales, seals, crocodiles, and larger sharks will occasionally eat sharks. The biggest threat to sharks is humans.
> 
> 16\. Sharks have been known to reproduce asexually. This is known as parthenogenesis and has been documented in a variety of different species.
> 
> 17\. One of the most common ways sharks mate is by biting each other.
> 
> 18\. Some species of sharks are carnivorous in the womb. The first tiger shark pup to hatch will eat its siblings.  
> (Don't worry, Mako shark pups are not cannibals, so Hank did not eat anyone in orca mama's womb because he's the only one in there lmao.)
> 
> 19\. Most female sharks will lose their appetites before giving birth. This is a biologically trigger to prevent them from eating their own pups.
> 
> 20\. Humans kill 100 million sharks a year. That means for every single person killed by a shark, humans kill 25 million sharks
> 
> 21\. Most sharks do not like the taste of humans, so they most often just take a bite and swim away disinterested.
> 
> (i love sharks! if it's not obvious by now! you can try requesting me for any shark's facts!)


	8. Rainbow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Love is a rainbow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _**rainbow** _   
>  _rain·bow | \ ˈrān-ˌbō \_   
>  _noun_
> 
> _an arc or circle that exhibits in concentric bands the colors of the spectrum and that is formed opposite the sun by the refraction and reflection of the sun's rays in raindrops, spray, or mist._

Connor gently opens Hank’s jaw widely and carefully examines the teeth with a flashlight. Hmm, it appears that Hank has gap between his upper front teeth. How peculiar. Connor gently touches the teeth and looks at the tongue. Hmm, tongue is just like human’s, just appears a bit bluer than human’s. So far, Hank’s mouth area appears to be just the same as human’s.

“Alright, Hank. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.” Connor says as Hank closes his mouth and grunts in return, “Now, can you bare your neck to me?” Connor asks and Hank obliges, looking up and he can see Hank’s Adam’s apple is bobbing up and down as he swallows his saliva. “Thank you. Now let’s see…”

Hank has each three pairs of gills on each side of his neck, unlike actual sharks that commonly have five pair of gills. It’s twitching every time Hank takes a breath. Connor pokes lightly his index finger to the gills and Hank flinches a bit, but otherwise he’s calm enough. He gently strokes the side of Hank’s face to signal him to look back straight. Hank’s sharp blue eyes are looking straight at Connor’s brown eyes.

Hank’s eyes have slit pupils, like reptiles’ eyes. And they will dilate when it’s dark, just like cat’s. How interesting. And Hank’s irises are blue colored; clear blue colored, like an aquamarine stone. And it shines when it’s dark. It scared Connor the first time the light was out and he was off to the bathroom, thinking that Hank will get scared, and then saw two shining eyes from the dark bathroom. He screamed so loud that night and he’s still embarrassed about it.

“You have pretty eyes, Hank.” Connor compliments and Hank’s face turns bluish as his tail twitches a bit.

“T-Thanks.” Hank replies and Connor smiles warmly in return.

Connor moves down to Hank’s torso. He places his hands to Hank’s chest, feeling Hank’s fast heartbeats to his palms and moves it gently down to Hank’s stomach. Just like he said yesterday, Hank is getting fatter because he can feel Hank’s excess fat on his stomach. Connor…likes it though.

“Uhh, Kon? You okay? You’ve been touching my fat for more than five minutes already.” Hank asks as he grabs wet cloth and putting it around his gills. Connor snaps out of his reverie. Oh geez, he just found his newest preference through Hank. How embarrassing.

“I-I’m sorry Hank. I’ll move on.” Connor replies as he moves his hands lower to Hank’s hips. Hmm. The shark skin texture starts at the hips and there are two fins on the pelvic area. He gently trails his hands over the fins, feeling up the shark skin and not missing Hank’s hitched breathing. Hmm, it seems these fins are there just for stabilizing Hank’s movements while in the water.

Speaking of fins, Hank also has fins on his forearms and his forearms also have the same shark skin textures too.

Connor spots a visible slit on Hank’s pelvic area. Huh, interesting. Merfolks have cloacae. He lightly trails his thumb to the slit and Hank jolts his tail up that it surprises Connor and he lands to his butt.

“A-a little fucking warning, can you?!” Hank exclaims out with blue face, his tail irately slapping onto the floor with wet ‘thwap!’.

“S-sorry, I got too caught up. Is it always that sensitive?” Connor asks as he’s back to his previous position.

“No, the mating season hormone actually makes everything you touch actually sensitive.” Hank huffs in embarrassment. O-oh. “Just…gimme a warning, would you?”

“Alright then Hank. Can I examine the cloaca later?” Connor asks and his cheeks redden a bit at that.

“O-okay.” Hank replies with completely blue face.

Okay. Time to move on to examine the rest of the tail and leave the cloaca alone for now.

The rest of the tail basically the same as Shortfin Mako shark’s tail. Connor trails his palms to the tail gently from Hank’s hips to the tip of the tail. He can actually feel pulses on the tail and it’s warm. Shortfin Mako shark is a hot-blooded fish, after all. How fascinating!

Connor pulls his attentions away to Hank’s scars on his body. The one that really catches his attention is the one on Hank’s left forearm.

“What happened to this?” Connor asks, trailing the tips of his fingers to the scars.

“I fought a bear and won.” Hank answers in triumph.

“A bear?” Connor echoes in pure confusion. How did Hank manage to find a bear and fight with it?

“Yeah! That time, I got lost and this fucking brown bear just came right at me. So we fought and I won after I bit his head off. But I got stranded from water and almost died drying up. Luckily, I didn’t and able to return back to the sea.” Hank describes with pride, his tail wetly slapping gently onto the floor. Connor smiles and chuckles at Hank’s happy expression.

“What about these two though?” Connor asks as he trails one hand to Hank’s left shoulder and another one to Hank’s right upper bicep.

“I got this one from mating season fight long time ago where I fought a narwhal merman, while this one is from a…sharp metal? I guess it’s something like that. It nicked it real deep that it scarred.” Hank explains.

“Do they still hurt?” Connor asks in worry, but it all washes off when Hank shakes his head. “Alright then, Hank. I think I’m done here. Is it really okay for me to check on your…cloaca?”

The blue faced response from Hank is instantaneous that it’s kinda adorable looking.

“Oh, uhh yeah. Yeah! S-sure. J-just be gentle…I guess?”

“Don’t worry, I will.”

Connor gently puts his hands to Hank’s pelvic area and lightly trails a thumb to the slit. Hank flinches a bit and lets out a breath through his nostrils as Connor slowly parts open the cloaca. He can see that the insides are bluish white color, unlike animals’ cloacae.

“Is it normal for it to be colored bluish white?” Connor asks as he pokes in a bit and realizes that it’s slimy and warm.

“N-no…only when…it’s mating season.” Hank answers choppily and flinches a bit when Connor pokes a finger into the cloaca. “A-are you d-done?” Hank asks as his tail twitches a bit. Connor didn’t answer as he just stares at the opened cloaca. He’s thinking that if Hank’s okay with it, he wants Hank to show his phallus, but he double-thinks it that it’s probably not a good idea at all.

After all, this body anatomy session is probably edging Hank up.

“…Yes. We’re done now.” Connor answers as he pulls his hands away from Hank, “Thank you in advance for your cooperation.” He thanks Hank and helps him up from the toilet seat back to the tub carefully. Hank is pretty big, so moving him around by himself is quite a challenge for Connor. He’s still surprised by himself when he managed to pull Hank up into the pool area by himself when he first found him. Possibly adrenaline fuels him up. “Alright here we go. Is there anything you want now, Hank?”

“…Honestly, yeah.” Hank answers, “You already see mine. Mind if I ask you to do the same? You know, the body anatomy thing.”

Oh?

_Oh._

“You want to see my naked body?” Connor asks with red cheeks.

“I-If you don’t mind, of course!” Hank quickly answers with blue cheeks, “It’s just…I’m just curious. N-not that you should accept it, of course! This is a very innocent request, okay?!”

“Ah, n-no it’s alright. After all, you never really get close to a human before, so this is like the only opportunity you get.” Connor answers and lets out a sigh to brace himself. Alright, here goes nothing. He pulls his T-shirt off and his shorts, downing him to only his underwear and putting his clothes to the sink before he turns to face Hank.

The face Hank gives him is a complete priceless expression, where his lips part open and his face is completely blue, while his eyes glint brightly and his hands ball up to a tight-gripped fists.

Connor put his legs into the tub and sits down on the bathtub frame so Hank can get better vision. He waits patiently as Hank slowly gets closer and brings up a wet webbed hand, placing it to Connor’s chest.

“It’s a heartbeat, right? It’s fast.” Hank comments.

“I am pretty nervous, after all. So, a fast heartbeat is pretty normal.” Connor answers, “It will be bad for us if the heartbeats are irregular though, either too fast or too slow is bad for us.” Hank hums as an answer as he puts his other hand to Connor’s chest too.

“You’re not breathing through gills, right?” Hank asks.

“No. I breathe using lungs. That way I can breathe in the open air, but I can’t breathe underwater.” Connor explains patiently and his breathe hitches a bit when Hank’s rough skinned hands brush over his nipples that Hank quickly pulls his hands off from Connor’s chest.

“Oh shit, you okay, Kon? Did it accidentally hurt you?” Hank quickly asks.

“No no! It’s okay! M-my nipples are sensitive, so…”

“Oh. **_Oh._** S-sorry. J-just tell me the areas you’re sensitive at.”

“O-okay. I’ll warn you about it.” Connor replies with a smile.

“A-alright then.” Hank says as he carefully put his hands to Connor’s waist. “You have something on your stomach.” Hank points out as he pokes Connor’s bellybutton.

“It’s a bellybutton. All humans have this because we’re connected to our mother’s womb before we got birthed out and the ‘connection’ got cut off by the surgeon.” Connor explains calmly, “Then the surgeon will sew it close, thus resulted into bellybutton. It’s basically our first scar when we’re brought into the world.”

“Huh. I don’t have one, but I got birthed too, if I’m not mistaken.” Hank says as he looks down to his smooth stomach.

“Maybe it’s ovoviviparous. This means you were in an egg, but your mother keeps you inside her until you hatched inside her, then she birthed you.” Connor explains. “Maybe because your mother is an orca mermaid, so it affects you a bit.”

“…Huh. That sounds reasonable.” Hank comments before he shrugs it off and continues his human anatomy education. Then his eyes lands to Connor’s crotch. “…You’re a male.” Hank announces out with surprised blue colored face and Connor blushes so hard when he hears it.

“Y-yes. That’s right.” Connor confirms, “Sorry. Did you get confused when you see me? I didn’t really confirm it to you, so it’s understandable.”

“…N-no, it’s alright. I’m just a bit surprised, that’s all.” Hank replies, “There are plenty of androgynous merfolks too, so I thought humans are like that too. You know, with both sexes in one body.”

Oh? So merfolks are hermaphrodites?

“What about you, Hank? Are you like that too?” Connor asks curiously as Hank trails his hands to one of his legs.

“No, but my late mate is.” Hank answers calmly, “You have smooth and strong legs.” He comments in fascination, “How does it feel to have legs? Is it nice?”

“It is nice. I can walk on the land from one place to the other. I can also run to go faster too, but in exchange I get tired easily.” Connor says, “I can also stay afloat in the water by kicking my legs in the water and I can also go swim too. Never as fast as you, of course.”

Hank looks at Connor’s legs as he gently trails his hands on them. Somehow, his gaze is a bit…dejected?

“…if I have legs, does that mean I can go anywhere you go, Konnorr?” Hank asks, “Walking and running by your side on the land? Not just swimming along with you when you’re in the water, or just waiting for you to show up and enter the water just for me to be by your side?”

Is Hank…upset about it?

Connor stays quiet at that. What is he going to answer? He doesn’t know what to answer that question. They both came from two different sides of the world, along with several difference body anatomy functions to adapt into their habitats. Connor can’t breathe underwater and can’t swim as fast as merfolks, and at the same time, Hank can’t live without water constantly soaking him and he can’t move well on land.

In the end, Connor can’t answer that question and Hank tells him to leave him alone for a while.

**…**

“Happy Halloween, Hank! I got you candies.” Connor exclaims out as he peeks into the bathroom.

“’Halloween’? What’s that?” Hank asks in pure confusion, putting the book in his hands away and he turns to face Connor as he approaches Hank with Jack-o’-lantern candy bucket in his hands.

“Honestly, it’s just a day where you can either walk around the neighborhood and asking for free candies people will give you, or you’re the one that stays at home and give candies to people that came to your home.” Connor answers with a small laugh, “The ones that came to your home usually will say ‘Trick or Treat’, and you can give them candies as the treats, or letting them giving you tricks for not giving them treats.”

“Oh? That sounds fun.” Hank says with a grin, “Alright then. Trick or Treat?” He asks, opening up his webbed hands.

“Here’s your treat, Hank. Happy Halloween.” Connor replies as he gives Hank few candies.

“Your turn now, Kon.” Hank says, “C’mon, say ‘Trick or Treat’.” He continues with playful grin.

“Alright. Then I choose ‘Trick’.” Connor replies with a grin as he sits down to a small stool near the bathtub. Hank hums while thinking as he puts away the candies. Connor wonders what kind of trick it is—

Connor freezes up a bit when Hank takes his hands and gently presses his lips to his knuckles. His face immediately flushes red and when Hank pulls his face closer to his, he can feel himself about to get combusted. And when Hank lightly brushes the tip of their noses together, Connor did combusted.

Did Hank just…give him Eskimo’s Kiss?

“Happy Halloween, Konnorr.” Hank says with a gentle expression before giving Connor a kiss on his left cheek and slowly nuzzles into his neck, sniffing his neck.

Oh, his mating cycle hour is starting.

“Do you need any help for your mating hour?” Connor asks as he lightly puts a hand to the back of Hank’s head. Even though Shortfin Mako shark’s mating cycle already ended by the first month of Fall, apparently the mating cycle keeps going for another two months until the end of the season for merfolks because they didn’t get mating cycle that often, usually just once every few years. Hank shows tendencies of nuzzling and sniffing into the crooks of Connor’s neck every time it starts. He shudder a bit as he can also feel his arousal is pooling in his stomach every time Hank nuzzling and sniffing his neck. Connor’s a bit sensitive there, after all.

That question seems to snap Hank out from his trance.

“Uhh, right. S-sorry. J-just go and give those people that come to the doorstep candies. I…I can take care of it. I’ll call you out when I need you.” Hank quickly says as he pulls himself away from Connor and turns around, his back facing Connor before he submerges himself into the water tub.

“…Alright, Hank. I’ll check on you by midnight, alright?” Connor tells Hank as he stands up. Hank gives him a thumb’s up and Connor walks out from the bathroom, closing the door on his way out gently.

Connor lets out a breath through his nostrils as he puts his hand to his fast-beating heart and the other hand to his hot cheeks.

On the other side of the door, Hank also put his webbed hand to his heart while staring at his other webbed hand in hatred.

**…**

“Hey Kon?”

“Yes Hank?”

“I love you.”

Connor whips his head to Hank so fast that he can barely feel the pain in his neck as he widens his eyes in shock.

“W-what did you just say, Hank?” Connor asks. M-maybe he misheard it.

“I said, ‘I love you’.” Hank repeats. No good! Connor can’t deny it now!

“What makes you think that you love me, Hank?” Connor asks, a bit flustered but more curious about the actual reason why Hank said it.

“Because I really care about you,” Hank answers, sharp blue eyes looking straight to Connor’s brown eyes, “I really like you. I like your smile, your laugh, your gentle and warm touch… Everything about you. You did your best to take care of me, teaching me how to talk and read, letting me to understand about the world more. Just like the Fox in ‘The Little Prince’ book, you have tamed me, Konnorr.”

“It feels good. It feels like something warm blooms in my chest every time I see you happy, every time you tell me that I did well, every soft touch you give me, every tasty and warm food you made just for me.” Hank explains as he puts a hand to his chest, “But at the same time, it hurts. It hurts so much. It reminds me on how I can’t walk and run along with you, how I can’t breathe in the same air as you, how I can’t stay by your side for a very long time without water constantly soaking me, how I can’t move on the land by my own strength without you constantly helping me up, and how I can’t possibly save you from possible danger when you’re outside.”

A sharp pang on Connor chest makes him wince a bit when he saw Hank’s pained and dejected expression on his face and crushed voice tone.

It’s been months since that anatomy education session in August where it ends with Hank wondering out about how they both aren’t able to stay together because of their different anatomy functions. Connor thought that Hank will just brush it off as the next day, it’s all back to normal until now.

To think that Hank is thinking hard about this…

Connor has been thinking the same thought. He really cares about Hank, but he can’t keep Hank away from his true home: the ocean. Hank may say that he’s happy here, but Connor is basically putting Hank in captivity. Just like Hank said, he ultimately had tamed him here. But ‘taming’ and ‘captivation’ are two different words. ‘Taming’ means domesticating a life form and forming a bond between the tamed and the tamers, but still giving them freedom to move around. ‘Captivation’, in the other hand, is the opposite of ‘taming’.

“Hank, I…” Connor starts, “I really care about you too, Hank. But I can’t keep you here forever, and I think you know why.” He continues as he gets closer to Hank, putting his hands to Hank’s face and presses their foreheads together. “You can’t live without water, and I don’t want you to sacrifice yourself just for my happiness. That’s not ‘love’, that’s ‘ego’. And I don’t want you to do that just to be with me.”

“But I’m happy with you.” Hank replies as he puts his trembling hands to Connor’s hands and clenches his eyes close. “Why can’t I stay with you, Kon? Is it because I’m not human? Are you disgusted because I’m half fish?”

“No! Absolutely not that, Hank! I-I’m happy that you love me, because I also really do care about you and I really do cherish your time with me here, but…the land is not a place for you, Hank.” Connor says, “Humans are greedy and egoistical creatures, Hank. If-if something ever happened to you just because I want you to stay close with me on the land, I-I don’t know what will I do if I lose you forever. Please understand. It’s for your own good, Hank.”

Hank stays quiet, but he wraps his arms around Connor’s middle and buries his face to his chest. He wraps his arms around Hank’s shoulders in return and gently puts a hand to the back of Hank’s head, slowly combing his wet hair.

“I love you too, Hank. But you can’t stay here, okay? Do you hear me?” Connor says, “It’s for your own good, Hank. I’m sorry but…maybe, maybe after all of these are over, we can work it out together, alright Hank?” He asks, “All we need to do is just to deal with Cyber Fauna, and when we won, we’ll work it out together, alright?”

Hank lets out shuddering breathe and nods.

“Okay. I trust you, Kon.”

“Okay.” Okay. Everything is okay. They’re going to get through it all. Connor already gets all evidences he needs. He just needs to give the data to Caleb to ease down the job, and then it’s all good.

They both stay there for a while. Hank seems to give no indication to let Connor go, as every time Connor moves a bit, he tightens his hold. It’s not hurting him, so he’s okay with it.

Maybe a lullaby will calm Hank down a bit.

 _“Idir ann is idir as,”_ Connor starts softly, _“Idir thuaidh is idir theas…”_ It’s been awhile since the last time he speaks Gaelic, but thankfully, the Arkait family members speaks Gaelic at home until their parents died in a car crash fifteen years ago.

 _“Idir thiar is idir thoir,”_ Hank loosen his hold a bit as his ears perk up in full attention, _“Idir am is idir áit…”_ Connor smiles at that and gently cradles Hank’s head to his chest.

 _“Casann sí dhom… Amhrán na farraige,”_ Connor remembers that his mother used to sing this lullaby when any of the Arkait siblings cries, _“Suaimhneach nó ciúin,”_ It was good times that he can’t ever experience again, _“Ag cuardú go damanta…”_

 _“Mo ghrá…”_ Connor presses his lips softly to Hank’s silvery crown.

 _“Idir gaoth is idir ton,”_ Hank slowly lets his hold go, but still clenching over Connor’s shirt, which is fine by him, _“Idir tuilleadh is idir gann…”_

 _“Casann sí dhom… Amhrán na Farraige.”_ Connor gently pulls Hank’s silver strands behind his ears, _“Suaimhneach nó ciúin,”_ He trails his hands on either sides of Hank’s face as he looks straight at Hank’s glistening blue eyes, _“Ag cuardú go damanta…”_ Connor presses their foreheads together gently as Hank puts his hands to Connor’s.

 _“Idir cósta, idir cléibh,”_ Connor presses his lips to Hank’s forehead, slowly trails down to kiss his closed right and left eyelids and down to the tip of Hank’s nose, _“Idir mé is idir mé féin…”_ He softly presses their lips together as Hank freezes up a bit, but relaxes down and wraps his arms back around Connor’s waist.

 _“Tá mé i dtiúin…”_ Connor pulls away and chuckles a bit when Hank subconsciously pulls himself closer to Connor. He holds Hank’s face and gently brushes the tip of their noses together. Connor’s brown eyes look straight to Hank’s sharp blue eyes as Hank pulls Connor’s hand and press their palms together.

“Just hold on for a little while longer…” Connor softly says as they both press their foreheads together and closed their eyes, savoring the intimate moment and listening to each other’s breathing patterns.

Everything will be alright.

**…**

“So… you and Hank…?” Caleb brings his fists together and does a circling motion. A sign language.

“Y-yeah, I suppose you could say that.” Connor replies with red cheeks.

“Oh my god IT REALLY HAPPENED AAA I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!” Caleb exclaims out as he runs off to the bathroom and screeching out Hank’s name. Connor can hear Hank’s spouting out surprised curses along with Caleb’s happy screeching.

“Congratulations Connor. I’m happy for you two.” Collin congratulates and gives the oldest a tight hug. “Do you need any help for the future wedding?” He asks with a teasing smile as Connor’s face immediately flushes red.

“W-we still haven’t thought of that at all, Collin! We just get together a week ago!” Connor replies and Collin chuckles at that.

“Don’t worry, brother. I’m just messing with you.” Collin says, “Besides, you still have other very important things to do, right?” He asks and Connor nods.

“Yes. I still need to deal with Cyber Fauna. Then after that, both Hank and I will deal with our circumstance.” Connor continues, “I’m sure we can figure it out together later.”

“Well, if you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask us.” Collin tells him with a smile.

“I will. Thank you, Collin.” Connor replies, “How’s Gavin, by the way? He’s not coming here?”

“No, he’s actually dealing with a case, a homicide.” Collin answers, “He said that he’ll try to share the case a bit to me, said that the victim left…an interesting specimen in their bathroom.”

“Huh. I hope everything goes well.” Connor replies and both brothers turn their heads as Caleb strides in before plopping down on the sofa next to Connor. He can see that Caleb is wet from head to toe, probably from messing around with Hank.

“So how are you, Con? Now you finally get a fishy butt that sits in your bathroom.” Caleb asks with a teasing grin.

“It’s pretty good, actually.” Connor answers, “As Hank’s mating season is finally over, I can sigh in relief as when Hank gets affectionate to me, it’s not because of his mating hormones, but from his own desire.”

“Have you taken a bath with him yet though?”

“…what’s the connection between taking a bath together with us in a relationship?”

“You know! Like in those Japanese comics! You can, like, wash his back and he can do yours and then you both can cuddle in the bathtub! Or if you want to get spicy…”

“Having sex in a bathroom is not safe, Caleb.  I tried once with Gavin and I slipped. I almost get a concussion…”

“I definitely do not want to hear your sex life with Gavin, Collin. Please stop.”

“I guess you’re right, Caleb. Hank actually has wanted to try taking a bath and wanted me to show him how.” Connor agrees, “But at the same time, I’m a bit worried about him. What if someone broke in and found him in the bathroom and then kidnapped him and sell him off to black market? I’m thinking of going back to work after months of taking pay leave. I can’t impose Markus, but at the same time I can’t really leave Hank by himself in the public bathroom for more than 8 hours.”

“Put him in your personal bathroom?” Both Caleb and Collin suggest in sync.

…Oh.

“You need help to bring Hank up to your bathroom upstairs?” Caleb asks as he stands up.

“Yes, please.” Connor replies softly in shame because he never really thought about it that far. He’s very grateful that his brothers are here to help him up and spots trivial stuffs he tends to overlook.

Like over the fact that his personal bathroom in his bedroom upstairs has bigger bathtub than the one downstairs.

“Holy hell, how big is this house?” Hank wonders out as he clings to Connor for life and looking around while the three of them moved him upstairs. The problem is just taking Hank’s heavy and long body upstairs and they stop for a moment to catch a breathe.

“Pretty big, but not as big as a mansion.” Collin answers with a grunt as he adjusts Hank’s tail in his arms.

“Yeah, just big enough for five family members with a lot of money to spend.” Caleb adds with a grin.

“I wish I can explore this house.” Hank comments as he looks around in awe, not spotting the worried look the triplets give him. Connor already tell his brothers about Hank’s insecurity for his inability on staying alive on land for a long period of time, and needless to say, the triplets wish that they can find a way for Hank to explore the world, but unless Hank suddenly grow lungs and legs in exchange of gills and tail, it can be said that it’s nearly impossible.

“Alright Hank, we’re gonna put you down in this tub, and then I’ll fill it up with water. Are you drying up?” Connor asks as they finally reach Connor’s personal bathroom.

“A little bit, but I’ll manage.” Hank answers calmly. The triplets nod at each other and slowly put Hank down into the big bathtub. Connor slowly fills the bathtub with water while Hank is looking around the bathroom and stretching his tail out. It’s been awhile since the last time his spine and tail is straight up, after all, so it’s good to finally straighten up his posture.

“Comfortable?” Connor asks as he combs Hank’s silver hair away from his face.

“It’s great.” Hank sighs out in comfort and nuzzles into Connor’s palm. “So when are we going to do this ‘taking a bath’ activity together?” He asks eagerly, his tail moving side to side in the water.

…what.

“Caleb, what did you tell him?” Connor growls out in annoyance and Caleb yelps in return while Hank tilts his head in confusion and Collin just watches in amusement.

In the end, Connor still indulges Hank’s desire to take a bath together.

“Alright Hank. Let’s wash your hair first.” Connor says as he pours a bit of shampoo into his palm and slathers it to Hank’s hair while Hank’s watching it. He gently washes the silver strands and scratches Hank’s scalp and nape, making Hank to sighs in coziness and closes his eyes as his tail flops wetly onto the wet floor.

“No wonder you humans like this. It feels great.” Hank comments happily.

“Yes, and also cleaning the hair and the scalp from the dirt.” Connor replies with a smile. He styles Hank’s hair using the shampoo bubbles and chuckles a bit while Hank seems clueless about it. “It also will make your hair all smooth and shiny.” He adds.

“Oooh… You mean, like your hair?” Hank asks and Connor nods at that. “Can I try shampooing you?” Hank asks again.

“Sure thing. Here’s the shampoo. Just pours a bit into your palm and slathers it to my hair.” Connor answers as he grabs the shampoo bottle and gives it to Hank, who accepts it eagerly. Hank carefully did what Connor shows him before and gently washes Connor’s hair.

“Feel good?”

“Yep. You’re doing great.”

“Alright. What’s the next one?”

“Next, we wash the bubbles with the shower.” Connor stands up and grabs the shower, not spotting Hank’s blushing face as he glances to Connor’s crotch, where he can clearly see the outline of Connor’s dick through his wet underwear.

“Alright Hank, close your eyes please. Oh, and try to not breathe through the water when it passes your gills. It might be bad for you.” Connor says as he turns on the shower and Hank complies, feeling the water running slowly from the top of his head. Connor washes the bubbles away using the water and let his fingers runs gently through the wet silver strands to clean it better.

After he’s done with Hank’s, he washes his hair while Hank actually shakes the water off from his hair like a dog.

“Oh wow my hair never been this smooth before.” Hank comments as he runs his webbed hand to his hair and sniffs on it, “And it smells really nice too. Human technology sure is amazing.” He adds.

That’s true. Connor is really impressed and in awe when he actually saw Hank’s hair is so smooth and silky looking. It’s even shines nicely!

“If you want, I can give your hair a conditioner so it gets silkier and shinier.” Connor says as he grabs the hair conditioner bottle.

“It can get more amazing than this?!” Hank replies in awe, his sharp blue eyes shines in eagerness.

“Sure can. Do you want it?” Connor asks with a smile and Hank nods eagerly. “Alright then.” He pours a bit of the conditioner to his palm and slathers it to Hank’s hair, smoothing it out nicely until he’s done. “Alright, we let it be for now. Let the conditioner do the job while we wash our body with soap.” He continues as he grabs the soap bar and wets it using the shower.

As the soap’s bubbles starts to pile up, Connor gently starts washing Hank’s body, starting from his back and his back fin.

“Are you gonna wash my back using bath towel like Caleb said the Japanese did?” Hank asks and Connor can’t help but nods. As long it makes Hank happy, he supposes he’s fine with it. He grabs a towel cloth and wets it up before starts scrubbing Hank’s back gently. Connor just realizes that Hank actually has dead skin on his human skin.

“Do you want to clean the rest of your body yourself?” Connor asks as he offers the soap bar.

“I don’t think it’s gonna feel good. The skin on my hands is too rough for the normal skin.” Hank answers. Well, that’s true…

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Why not? I trust you, Kon.”

“Alright, just tell me if I accidentally brush over sensitive areas.” Connor warns and wets the soap before he makes soap bubbles and starts cleaning Hank’s chest. Hank is mostly calm and seems to enjoy the treatment, even when Connor is indulging himself by fondling Hank’s pecs and the small rolls on his belly.

Connor never thought that he’s going to have fondness to big-sized body.

…Okay, he needs to stop harassing Hank.

Connor continues on by scrubbing Hank’s shark skinned parts using the bath towel, as it’s basically sandpaper and Hank’s seems happy with it. Shark skin is both thick and rough after all, and its structure is like very small rows of horizontal teeth. Connor gently scrubs the area where Hank’s cloaca is, but it seems like Hank doesn’t really affected by it anymore. This is good, because it means that there’s no residue on the mating cycle.

“Alright Hank, let’s wash off the bubbles and your hair. Are you ready?” Connor asks, readying the shower in his hand.

“Do it. I’m ready.” Hank replies with a grin before he closes his eyes and mouth and Connor gently washes Hank off from the bubbles, sometimes using the towel for the rough-skin parts. He gently threads his fingers through Hank’s silver locks and he can swear that Hank’s hair is glittery when the bathroom light accidentally shines through it.

Now for the hard part.

“Hank, do you want me to trim your beard so it looks better?” Connor asks as he runs his hand through the silver beard.

“You can do that!?” Hank asks in excitement, “Can you do it for me, Kon? I read it from a novella book where this lady is doing that to her husband.” Okay, Connor did not expecting the very last one but he’s fine with it.

“Sure. I can grab a scissor after we’re done bathing, alright?” Hank nods before he grabs the soap bar while Connor watching him curiously.

“Can I soap you up, Kon?” Hank asks enthusiastically, “Oh, but my hands are rough and webbed.” He adds softly as he looks down to his hand neutrally.

Oh.

“Well, I don’t see why not.” Connor answers as he stands up to take off his wet underwear. It sticks uncomfortably around his crotch and butt, after all. Why didn’t he take it off in the first place anyway?

Then Connor turns his head to look at Hank’s completely blue face with his eyes are staring straight to Connor’s bare pelvic area.

Oh.

“A-are you okay? Does it make you uncomfortable?” Connor asks in slight concern with his cheeks dusted pink as he sits back down next to Hank.

“N-no, just…weird.” Hank answers truthfully as he tore his gaze away to anywhere else but Connor’s, “Human anatomy is weird…” He murmurs softly before he starts preparing the soap to wash Connor’s body. “O-okay, Kon. I’m gonna soap you up really slowly. If it hurts or anything, just say it, got it?”

“Got it.”

“Okay, here goes…” Hank carefully and slowly starts soaping Connor’s chest and his shoulders. At first, Connor thought that it’s going to feel like sandpaper, but Hank’s palms feel more like crochet bath puff on his skin. Huh. So the skin on Hank’s palms is less rough than the rest of the shark skin. Combined with the webs on his hands, it gives bizarre and unique feeling.

He lets out a blissful sigh when Hank cleans his neck area and his breathings hitched a bit when Hank’s palms brushes over his nipples down to his flanks. Hank’s hands stop for a moment, probably waiting for Connor to say something. But when he stays quiet, Hank continues his hands to his back, though Hank didn’t tell Connor to turn his back to him, so it’s more look like Hank is embracing him and it flusters Connor up a bit. Not to mention their pose is pretty awkward…

O-oh, Hank’s wet torso is touching his torso…

Connor holds down a moan when Hank’s slowly slides his palms to the small of his back and the starting curve of his butt. Hank seems to notice it that he stops his hands and actually retracts his hands back up to his back before he pulls back, face flushing blue and Connor’s face flushes red when he saw it.

“S-sorry.” Hank apologizes.

“N-no no! It’s quite alright! It’s just…it’s been awhile since I dated someone and being this intimate…” Connor truthfully replies, “I got too caught up with my job and trying to gather evidences on Cyber Fauna’s cruelty, so…” He trails off in embarrassment as Hank is looking at him with such fervor in his sharp blue eyes before they glance down and back to his brown eyes.

“Do you need help with it?”

…what.

“No no, it’s alright! I don’t want to take this too fast.” Connor quickly says, afraid that it’s pacing too fast for Hank.

“Pup, I met with my late mate and immediately initiated copulation with her the time she accepts my presence. This is like the longest one I ever experience.” Hank replies with a roll of his eyes and ‘really?’ looks on his face. Oh, he’s using ‘copulation’ word for ‘sex’. That’s kinda adorable. “But if you don’t want to, I’m perfectly fine with it. I know you humans didn’t just copulate with others that easy.” He adds calmly as he continues on soaping Connor’s arms and hands gently.

“M-maybe next time? After all of these are over? You know, as a celebration?” Connor suggests with a smile and Hank grins toothily back before brushing the tip of their noses together.

“That sounds nice.” Hank answers before he pulls away and continues on soaping his legs, slowly pulling them up and spreads them open calmly. “Uhh, do you want me to wash your phallus too or you do it yourself?” He asks with blue specks dusting his cheeks.

“Ah, I’ll do it myself later.” Connor answers with a blush. Hank uses the word ‘phallus’ for the word ‘dick’, that’s kinda cute.

Hank continues on soaping his legs until his fingers brush over Connor’s feet and he chuckles a bit as his legs jolt up a bit.

“Oh, sorry. I’m a bit ticklish there.” Connor quickly says as Hank is giving him a surprised look.

“Oh. Is that bad?” Hank asks curiously.

“No, it’s just a normal reaction when there are many nerves under the skin. It’s pretty much sensitive there, but not in a…sexual way.” Connor explains as he takes the soap from Hank’s hand and continues on washing his crotch and his butt crack, actually forgetting that Hank is watching him with blue face before Hank quickly tears his gaze away from the ‘vulgar’ scene and grabs the shower.

“You know, you gotta remember that I’m here watching your every move.” Hank says with a blush as he turns the shower on and starts rinsing the bubbles from Connor’s body.

“Oh I-I’m sorry! I kinda forgot…” Connor replies with red face as he rubs his body to clean the bubbles off faster. After that, he washes his face with the same soap and rinses off. He slicks his hair back as it’s almost pricking his eyes. “Alright Hank. Do you need help to get back into the tub? Or maybe do you want to try a bath bomb? North gave some to me along with the shampoos and soap bars, but I never really get the chance to try one. I’ve always been curious about it too.”

“Bath bomb?!”

“It’s basically just a thing that makes the water into colorful water and smells nice, and also good for the skin. Caleb tended to buy some in the past, but he never let anyone to use one because he said it’s expensive and he bought it using his own money,” Connor replies in amusement at Hank’s outbursts, “well, when we put the bath bomb into the water, it will make the water all fizzy. That’s probably why it’s called bath bomb.” He never really knows what the actual purpose to bath bomb or bath salt is, but he guesses this is the right occasion as this is Hank’s first bath.

“That sounds menacing,” Hank says before he shrugs, “Eh, might as well do it then. It sounds fun and weird.” He continues with a grin and Connor returns it with a smile before he nods, standing up and walking toward the bathroom cabinet. Connor grabs the packaging box of the bath bombs and opens it before he grabs one and takes it out from the paper seal. After he’s done, he walks back to Hank, who’s soaking himself up with the shower.

The bathtub water is already filled when they first moved Hank into this bathroom, so all he has to do it just put the bomb into the water, right?

So Connor gently put the bomb into the water.

Connor flinches a bit when the bath bomb suddenly fizzles away in the water and quickly removes his hand, watching the water together with Hank with pure awe and curiosity as it slowly turns into pink colored.

And when it’s done, the water is completely pink and there’s sheen of glitters in the water, so Connor carefully helps Hank up into the bathtub and sits down next to Hank while Hank is playing with the glittery pink water.

“It feels…slimy.” Hank comments out in slight disgust as he rubs his forearm in the water, but the sheen of glitters catch his attention every time.

“It does feel weird,” Connor agrees, not finding any appeal to the slippery and shiny pink water, “It does smells nice, though.” He adds and Hank halfheartedly nods in agreement.

In the end, both of them agreed on not really into bath bombs and Connor gives the rest of the bath bombs to Caleb, who seems really shocked but accepts the bombs anyway.

It’s a very nice bathing experience for both Connor and Hank.

But Hank’s shiny silver hair actually grabs some birds’ attentions for the next few days every time the sunlight seeps into the bathroom through the big window near the bathtub and the blinds are not down. Many birds slam themselves into the window and scare Hank to no end that he doesn’t want to use hair conditioner ever again and always stays out of the sunlight when it reflects into the bathroom.

Apparently the bath gives Hank a phobia for birds and Connor is both amused and guilty about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy valentine's day!
> 
> and it's time for me to gulp down a shot of my dad's whiskey and go to bed and wait for tomorrow so i can cut my hair short and let my mom be disappointed in my confused ass about my sexuality and gender identity and let me succumb into depression and eventually kill myself.
> 
> but at least i still have TJ to brighten my day a bit.
> 
> and the existence of hank and cb always managed to save me.


	9. Steel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elijah Kamski; at your service.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _**steel** _   
>  _\ ˈstēl \_   
>  _noun_   
>  _a hard, strong, gray or bluish-gray alloy of iron with carbon and usually other elements, used extensively as a structural and fabricating material._

“Connor! It’s been awhile!”

Connor freezes up when he heard that sweetly poisonous voice and turns his head before he deathly glares at the figure that stands next to him with the same smile on his face.

“Elijah Kamski.” Connor growls out warily as he scowls at the ex-CEO of Cyber Fauna’s face. Despite of the man’s enigmatic existence, Connor can still clearly see the man’s inquisitive gaze that’s tracing him from head to toe.

“It’s good to see you here, Connor! Still alive and kicking, I see. Last time I saw you was…around 5 years ago, if I’m not mistaken?” Elijah asks with interest.

“Yes. When I got fired.” Connor replies and crosses his arms across his chest. What a luck he has today. First, he tripped over Sumo this morning; second, some children threw an egg at him; and last, meeting Elijah Kamski in a coffee shop while waiting for Hank’s Russian Espresso and the man laughs at his words.

“Still sassy as always, Connor. It sure is a shame when you got fired. I missed your sassy remarks on me and stubbornness when you worked.” Elijah returns with a smile, “Now tell me, do you have time real soon? I’ve plenty questions to ask you.” He asks.

“Why not here?” Connor asks back with one raised eyebrow. Elijah Kamski is a mysterious fellow, after all. He can’t read what this ex-CEO is thinking and his whole existence always shrouded with enigmatic and cryptic aura. Connor doesn’t hate the man himself, as he got fired right after the ex-CEO resigned from Cyber Fauna. But this man seems to have some kind of weird interest on Connor at his previous workplace that it irks him to no end.

“Unless you want everyone knows about your fishy friend and he finds his lament soon enough, then I won’t press you.” Elijah answers with a nonchalant shrug while Connor’s body stiffing up when he heard it and turns his head slowly to face him.

“How…” Elijah smiles knowingly at Connor’s horrified gaze.

“If you’re willing, I’m inviting you to my…ah, my yacht by the docks for lunch tomorrow, and then I’ll answer your questions and vice versa. Deal?” Elijah asks in amusement and pats Connor’s stiff shoulder, “well, I’ll be waiting, Connor. You can bring your friend along, if you want.” He finishes as he grabs his latte and leaves with a lazy wave of his hand.

What…the fuck just happened.

**…**

“You what, Kon?” Hank asks with visible puzzlement on his face after he sips his Russian Espresso.

“I just met with my ex-boss and he invited us to his yacht tomorrow at lunch.” Connor repeats with a tired sigh.

“Why and how the heck did he know about me?” Hank asks calmly and sips on his drink again.

“I have no idea how the heck did he know about you.” Connor answers as he sits down to the bathroom floor and leans on to the bathtub frame, “He’s a weird guy, so there must be something…maybe mythical about him. Won’t be surprised if he turns out to be a sea witch or a something.” He adds with amused smile as he imagines Elijah with Halloween costume of a witch, with the witch hat and a fluffy dress along with a broom in hand, laughing in joy before actually cringing that it’s such a weird and hideous mental image.

“Sea witch is real, you know. Sea witch is what we call for merfolks that can use magic, but lived by themselves somewhere in the deep sea in isolation, be it a merman or mermaid.” Hank explains as he leans closer to Connor, “They’re mostly good people and not…crazy like how humans interpreted witches in general. In fact, most merfolks that can use magic are good people and are sweethearts.” He continues as Connor listens to it eagerly.

“Can you use magic, Hank?” Connor asks, a bit anticipating if Hank can, in fact, use magic.

“Probably not. Never really try it out or learn how to magic too. My ma could, though. That’s why she was the leader of the pack. Maybe my brother could and become a sea witch or something somewhere in this world. I dunno.” Hank answers fondly, “and I don’t really know about my dad, as I never really saw him ever since I was born. Ma also never talked about him, so I assumed he’s dead or something.” He adds with a shrug and sips his Russian Espresso.

“But do you think accepting my ex-boss’ invitation is a good thing?” Connor asks.

“From what you tell me, he seems…” Hank trails off as he gazes away while thinking, “honestly, he sounds like a rich-ass mad scientist that’s actually harmless and just want to see the world burn with a glass of wine in hand.” He finishes in amusement and Connor rolls his eyes but smiled at the mental image anyway.

“But if I bring you along, there’s chance that Cyber Fauna is patrolling on the sea with their boats and spot you again. I can’t risk that!” Connor protests back, “and Elijah might be planning to trap us!”

“Hey, calm down, pup. I can just go real deep into the sea or just wait near home. As long as there’s water, it’s not a big deal for me.” Hank replies, “just don’t go too far from the water, alright? That way, I can still save you if shits happen. Then we jump back into the water.” He continues and sips his Russian Espresso calmly.

Connor a bit stunned when he heard Hank labeling this house as ‘home’, but can’t find himself to ask the actual meaning on using the phrase. He’s very honored for Hank to label this empty and full of memory big house as ‘home’. Though this house actually need proper maintenance as the wall paints are starting to get flaky and some doors’ hinges are starting to get rusty because of the salty wind from the sea.

Maybe later after everything settles down.

“Well, if you’re okay with it, then I suppose I’m okay with it.” Connor replies nervously, “but just don’t put yourself in any harm’s way, okay? Even though I’m in any kinds of danger, okay? It’s not worth it to sacrifice both of us.” He adds and actually gives Hank the coldest glare when Hank is opening his mouth to protest but didn’t stop him from protesting anyway.

“Wha—how can I let my mate get hurt by those bastards just to save my life?! No! I’m not losing another mate!” Hank exclaims out angrily, eyebrows knits close and splashes out water as his tail moves abruptly. Connor frowns at Hank’s stubbornness.

“No! We need you to take those bastards down! They’re a threat to your people, Hank!” Connor argues back stubbornly.

“What am I to you, Konnorr? Some evidences or an eyewitness to show to the world that my people exist and this evil corporation are fucking threatening my species?! Huh!? Or just some fucking scientific object that’s you observed and as a tool to bring those people down for revenge!?”

“N-no! That’s not what I mean at all, Hank! I—“

“No? Then what?! Give me a fucking reasonable excuse!”

“I—I just—! I—! I just don’t want to lose my happiness by the same assholes again!”

Hank falls quiet after Connor’s outburst and softens his gazes as he saw Connor’s eyes starts to water and his lower lip quivers. Connor bites his lower lip and looks down to the bathtub’s frame.

“I already lose my parents, Hank. I don’t want to lose you by them too…” Connor shakily says softly as he rests his head to the bathtub frame, “if I lose you too then…I don’t know what I would do.”

"…Then what would I do without you, Kon?” Hank softly replies, “You may say that I will move on and find another merfolk to be my mate or something, Kon. But I can’t stand a life with guilt on loosing you. If I can still move to save you, I will. I never feel this deep in love to anyone but you, Konnorr. Heck, not even to my late mate!” He continues as he puts the drink to the bathtub frame and gently pulls Connor’s head up to look at him.

Hank gently traces his right thumb to Connor’s two beauty marks on his left cheek as he looks straight to Connor’s beautiful and glistening brown orbs that look back to his sharp blue eyes. He traces his left thumb gently to Connor’s soft lips and sees that Connor’s cheeks are starting to redden as Hank’s face gets closer to his face.

“But…if I lose you…” Connor starts to argue again, but groans a bit when Hank slips his thumb into his mouth and presses it gently to his tongue in intention to stop Connor from talking more. But Connor is not Connor if not stubborn, so he tries to fight the thumb away using his tongue.

Hank, however, thinks faster and slips his tongue into Connor’s mouth, not minding Connor’s surprise grunt and shivers when he feels Hank’s tongue against his and his sharp teeth gently pricked his lips. Hank tastes like coffee and alcohol…?

_The Russian Espresso._

“A-ahh…!” Connor softy moans as Hank keeps licking his tongue and actually starts to explore his mouth. His teeth. His tongue. His gum. His tongue. The roof of his mouth. _His tongue_.

Eventually, Hank pulls closer and nuzzles to Connor’s neck, sniffing Connor’s scent and tracing his veins with his nose, feeling Connor’s fast pulse and feels him shiver in Hank’s embrace as he holds the back of Connor’s head and shoulder.

This is bad. Connor just accepts Hank’s request to buy him the new coffee-based drink at Simon’s younger twin brother’s newly opened café, the Daniel’s CaféBar this morning and completely forgot that he’s been drinking it while they’re talking! Hank never tried alcohol before and this is basically his first! Though Connor doesn’t really know that there will be alcohol in it, so it’s also his fault for being too soft on Hank…

Connor lets out an embarrassingly loud moan when Hank trails his tongue and teeth from his neck down to the crook of his neck before he actually lands his sharp teeth there and bites down deep. He jolts up in pain, but bites down the pained cry from actually startling Hank and actually bit a chunk out of him as he feels Hank’s teeth pry themselves away from him and replaced by his tongue that licks through the wound.

Connor can feel that he bleeds out, but somehow every time Hank’s tongue licks through the wounds, it feels chilling and warm at the same time. It feels…nice. He lets out a small groan after a while Hank licks through his wounds…

“H-Hank—“

“Konnorr…taste bad…smell nice…Sere’s mate…Hank’s mate…mine.”

Sere…? Oh, Hank’s childhood name?

“Nnnghh…everything…spinning…sick…gonna puke…”

That snaps Connor out from his trances and quickly but carefully helps Hank out from the bathtub to the toilet bowl, not minding the throbbing at the crook of his neck. As Connor put Hank near the toilet bowl, Hank hurls out his stomach content and Connor gently rubs his back.

“No more alcoholic stuffs for you, Sere.” Connor softly scolds Hank.

Hank just hurls and grunts back as an answer.

After a while, Hank lets out a groan and rests his head to the toilet seat. Connor gently pets his head and lets out a pained huff as he puts his other hand to the bite wound. He already knows that Hank has oral fixation (even Hank himself said it that he tends to bite on stuffs since he was a child), but he tends to forget about it when talking.

Connor is expecting that he’s bleeding badly, but he finds that there are no open holes or even the red liquid when he retracts his hand back. In fact, the wounds seem to have closed up and healed, leaving an obvious bite mark scars and dull throbbing. Huh. Is this one of the weird and magical stuffs that’s connected to merfolk’s physiology? Like, healing saliva???

Whatever it is, one thing for sure is there will be no more alcoholic foods or beverages for Hank.

**…**

“Are you sure you’re okay, Konnorr? Fuck…I can’t believe I did that because I got drunk…” Hank asks out in worry while massaging his throbbing head. Fuck, he can’t believe he went berserk like that on ‘Konnorr’!

“It’s fine, actually! Everything is…uhh, under control.” ‘Konnorr’ replies with a nervous smile, “You just bit me, that’s all. But somehow it all healed up now after you licked it up.” He continues as he rubs the right side of the crook of his neck and scratches on it a bit. “It’s a bit itchy now, though.” He adds softly.

“Can I see?” Hank asks and ‘Konnorr’ shrugs his shirt collar aside a bit as an answer. Sure enough, he can see pinkish bite mark scars on the crook of ‘Konnorr’s neck. Oh yeah that’s a bite, for sure. “Yeaaah…I sure forget to tell you that our saliva have healing ability…thing. If I can reach my back, I would lick the wound on my back months ago to heal it up. Sorry for biting you, though.”

“It’s alright. What else do you remember?” ‘Konnorr’ asks and fixes his shirt collar.

“Uhh…something about we’re going to your ex-boss’ lunch party thing then we started arguing about stuffs?” Hank unsurely answers and scratches the back of his head, “Also, I’m going with you on that lunch thing. I’ll follow you to the docks by swimming through the sea while you use your car.” He insists and ‘Konnorr’ sighs at that.

“Yes, we have establish the plan for that when we’re arguing before.” ‘Konnorr’ replies and seems a bit unhappy by the end decision but didn’t try to change the plan anyway, “Just…promise me you won’t be reckless, alright? Try thinking first before you act, okay Hank?”

“I know what I’m doing, Kon. Don’t worry about me.” Hank replies as he lounges out in the tub to stretches out his spines, “Come on. Let’s take a bath!” He continues eagerly with a toothy grin.

“…Alright then.” ‘Konnorr’ agrees with a smile and starts undressing.

It’s been a routine for both of them when ‘Konnorr’ returns home in the evening. ‘Konnorr’ starts to go work again since three weeks ago. It’s a bit lonely and very quiet, but ‘Summo’ and ‘Kooki’ sometimes came into the bathroom and accompany him. ‘Kooki’ seem to really like him and keeps on biting and licking his hands. Hank can’t really feel the bite though, so he’s perfectly fine by it. And sometimes ‘Konnorr’ came back home with foods, like ‘Chinese takeout’, ‘pizza’, ‘lasagna’, and others! It was great but ‘Konnorr’ doesn’t seem happy with it, but can’t really do much as he was pretty busy and sometimes came back in the evening.

“You start to get fat.” ‘Konnorr’ comments as he soaping Hank’s torso and feeling up his chest and belly.

“You seem to like it though.” Hank replies with a grin and ‘Konnorr’ blushes so hard that his face and ears are red. He didn’t answer his comment, so Hank just laughs at that.

“Here, I’ll soap you.” Hank says as he pulls ‘Konnorr’ to his lap and grabs the soap, not minding ‘Konnorr’s soft ‘oh my’ and starts soaping him gently. Hmm. ‘Konnorr’ is always feeling up his chest and belly every time they bathed, and it’s actually tickles a bit. Hank grins mischievously at that.

Maybe…

“Konnorr, are you ticklish?” Hank asks as he gently soaps ‘Konnorr’s back, planning something in mind.

“A bit around my armpits and my sides. Why?” ‘Konnorr’ asks back innocently and Hank chuckles darkly at that.

“So I can do this!” ‘Konnorr’ yelps and laughs as Hank’s hands brush over the sides and wiggles his fingers.

“Noo—Ahahah! H-Ha—heheh!—Hank!” ‘Konnorr’ tries to struggle out from Hank’s holds while laughing hard, but Hank’s obviously stronger than ‘Konnorr’ so to no avail from escaping Hank’s ‘embrace’. Take that, human! That’s what you get from keep on groping him!

“H-Hank! C—Ahaha!—C’mon now!” He wheezes out and Hank chuckles out as he keeps on for a moment before he stops, letting ‘Konnorr’ to lean on him and catch a breath. ‘Konnorr’ chuckles for a moment before he slaps Hank’s forearms that curls around his waist in annoyance.

“Hank!”

The merman just laughs at the man’s scolding shout. Hank nuzzles to ‘Konnorr’s hair and chirps softly as an apology. ‘Konnorr’ lets out a sigh and just smiles in endearment. He rarely chirps anymore, but sometimes he just wants to because he feels happy. ‘Konnorr’ also seems to like it when he chirps again, so everything’s good.

**…**

“Alright Hank. You ready?”

“I was born ready, pup. I could swim around and hunted small fishes when I just birthed.”

Connor rolls his eyes with a sigh and a smile. That’s true; most baby sharks that were birthed are able to take care of themselves just after they got birthed as usually their mother didn’t really take care of them. But considering Hank’s mother is an orca, she took care of him until he’s ready to mate and leave the pack or stay in the pack.

Orcas are known as ‘Sea Wolves’, after all. The largest dolphins in the dolphin family live in groups and usually the parents will teach their babies on how to hunt and their preferences on their preys. Hank said that the only orca merfolks in their pack are just his mother and his brother, and maybe some other siblings he has but know nothing about them because he never met them.

His mother is basically both an alpha woman in the pack and a caring mother to both Hank and his siblings. Connor really likes it when Hank talks about his family. He can see that Hank really cares about them and actually missed his family, but he doesn’t know where they are now as the pack live in nomad and his brother is somewhere in the ocean.

“Alright then. And…up we go!” Connor heaves Hank up and pulls him out from the bathtub. He already put wet towel around Hank’s gills, so they both will be good to go for a while. All though, they both leave water tracks on the floor as Connor pulls Hank out back to the beach through the pool area.

Connor stops for a while to catch a breath in the pool. After all, pulling a merman that length over than two meters and weights two times more than Sumo by yourself when you’re not that athletic is a very hard. Hank is concerned when he soaks up in the pool while waiting for Connor, but Connor is fine with it.

They continue their journey to the ocean and as they finally lands to the sand, Connor realizes how he misses the feeling grains of sand between his toes and the crashing ocean waves to his legs. While Hank realizes how he misses the ocean to swim and get that thrill on swimming faster than the tunas while hunting them.

“Alright Hank. You can go first, but try to stay away from any boats or just stay in the water near the docks until I call you out, okay?” Connor is scared about this. He’s really scared about Hank’s safety. He knows that he’s probably restrain Hank too much, but he’s just…well, worried and scared. But he knows that Hank’s smart enough to take care of himself, so that lessen down his worry.

“You’re the boss, pup. I’ll follow your plan,” Hank replies, “I’ll just wait under the docks that’s really empty, so I’ll be fine when I show up to you, okay?”

“Alright. Just…be careful, Hank.” Connor says before he leans in and pecks a kiss to Hank, who happily returns it.

“See you at the docks, Konnorr.” Hank replies and swims away into the sea until Connor can’t see his back fin.

Connor immediately returns inside the house, mops the wet floor sloppily, changes his outfit, and then goes to his car to drive off to the empty part of the docks. He still drives safely as they’re not really in a hurry. It’s also giving Hank some time to spend in the sea after months being out of it and gives him some time to think of some plan if Elijah was selling them out to Cyber Fauna.

As Connor finally arrives, he looks around to check if there are people around. Its lunchtime, so there are not many people around, and that’s good and he can call Hank out without worrying about people actually sees him.

Connor slips out his shirt and shorts, revealing his full body swimsuit. He gives no shit if Elijah is going to comment on him being underdressed. No clothing is going to get in his way to escape into the water if shits go wrong from any grabby hands. He grabs his new goggles (somehow he lost his old one when he saved Hank) and put it on before walking towards the deserted docks.

“Hank…? Are you there?” Connor softly asks as he gets closer to the edge of the docks, looking around the place.

“Here.” Hank replies as he brings his head up from the water, along with Smotyn the seal beside him!

“Did anyone see you?” Connor asks again as he slips into the water and the seal immediately just approaches him to bump his head to Connor. Connor just smiles at the seal and carefully pets Smotyn’s head. The seal seems to like the attention the human gives him.

“Honestly I have no idea.” Hank answers, “Now, which boat was it? Is it the white one with the word ‘ELIJAH’ on it in the middle of the sea?” He asks.

“Yes, that’s the one because Elijah is a showoff dickhead. He likes to put his name on every property he owns. He even put it on his pen one time when I found it on the floor.” Connor sighs at that one day he first met Elijah and immediately thought that it’s a curse because Elijah always showed up and approached him. It’s like having a stalker. Is that what Collin felt when he got plenty of fans that always know where he was when he’s in high school?

“Well, let’s go then. Do you want me to help you up or just swim along with you?”

“Just swim along, but don’t get too close to the surface.”

But they’re about to swim, the seal keeps on bumping gently into Connor. He’s confused for the seal’s behavior, but when the seal suddenly gently bites his forearm and pulls him, he gets a feeling that maybe the seal wants to help him swim faster? Hank is just watching from underwater, observing carefully in case Smotyn attacked Connor.

In the end, they all just swim until they’re pretty far away from the docks and Connor’s legs starts to tire out, Hank let him to cling onto him and let the merman do the swimming. Up close like this, Connor can see and feel Hank’s muscles while he swims through the water. His silver hair glistening and when the sunlight shines down into the water and reflected back by Hank’s silver hair. The way Hank moves his head to look around in the water as Connor takes a breath ever so often.

Eventually, they finally saw Elijah’s yacht and the man himself peering down from the yacht with a wine glass in hand. Heck, he himself is in a bathrobe!

“Connor and his fishy friend! You’re finally here! I was starting to think that you won’t accept my invitation…” Elijah says as he helps Connor up onto the boat and look at Hank eye-to-eye, “Hello, Sere. It’s good to see you again.” He sneers happily while Hank scowls at him.

…what?

Connor look at both Elijah and Hank’s faces back and forth a few times in confusion. Hank looks annoyed but Elijah seems amused by the whole scenario. They both know each other? But how? As far as he knows, Hank lives underwater his whole life until now, while Elijah—

_Elijah Kamski._

“Stal’, the heck are you doing playing human all these years.” Hank growls out in irritation and Elijah just laughs.

“Well, if you spend most of your days in the water by yourself, you’ll get bored a lot. And when you get bored, you’re starting to get crazy ideas.” Elijah answers, “playing human is the best idea I ever get and it’s very satisfying to be a famous figure between all of these humans.” He adds in amusement and sips his wine.

“You need to stop dicking around.”

“Humans are all finicky and amusing creature to mess around, you know. Especially Connor!”

“Y-You two know each other?” Connor asks out in pure confusion.

“This guy,” Hank starts, pointing at Elijah, “is an actual sea witch and he’s a dolphin merman. He used to mess me around until one day he’s gone. Poof. And because he’s a sea witch, no one knows where he is. And now he’s here; playing human.” He finishes while Elijah smirks and drinks his wine in delight.

“Like I said, playing as human is great. They have amazing sustenance and beverages to taste! I’m sure you already know about it.” Elijah comments out, “Do you want to try being a human for a while? I’ll give it to you for a price.” He offers out.

“No, you’re a sneaky bastard and I don’t trust you.” Hank replies distrustfully, “I’ll just swim around while waiting for you both are talking and eating. Don’t you dare do weird shits to my new mate unless you want me to maul you.” Elijah just rolls his eyes at Hank and gives him a ‘really?’ look.

“Sere! I’m honored that you see me worthy enough to be your competition for your new mate! But I assure you, I have no romantic interest on this one, so you can go and swim along.” Elijah turns to face Connor, who’s still completely lost at this peculiar meeting. Poor human not understanding a thing about this! What a goofy looking expression Connor always have on his face when he completely lost it.

“Come, Connor. Let us have a feast while we talk.” Elijah strides along, snapping Connor out from his reverie and quickly follows Elijah.

Connor still lost it. Hank knows Elijah? And Elijah knows Hank? Elijah is a sea witch? Not only that, Elijah knows Hank’s childhood name! And Hank also knows Elijah…actual name? Wait, so they both are already acquaintance to each other?! And not only that, Elijah is an actual human with legs and lungs, not fish tail! Wait, he’s a dolphin merman, means he’s not a fish, he’s a mammal already.

“Connor? Connoorr? Earth to Connor?”

Connor snaps out from his monologue, looking straight to Elijah Kamski’s amused face across the table. Now that he’s close to the ex-CEO, he somehow can see a light discoloration line on Elijah’s forearms. The lines somehow lined up with the fins on Hank’s forearms. He wonders if Hank somehow accepts the sea witch’s offer, will he get the same discoloration lines on his forearms. Will there be any other discolorations on different places?

“I lost him again. Chloe, my dear? Would you mind bring the lunch out? You can join us if you want.”

“It’s alright, Elijah. I’ll just wait inside while you both discussing about things you want to discuss. I’ll bring the lunch out!”

Connor turns his head towards the source of the clear and sparkling sounded voice and looks straight at a blonde woman’s clear blue eyes. The woman, Chloe, smiles kindly at Connor before she left them both to get the lunch out. She has milky white skin and the blue dress she wears show a lot of her back’s milky white skin.

“Pretty one, isn’t she?” Connor changes his attention back to Elijah, who just smiles neutrally at him, “A beautiful flower that will never wither. A perfect creation and forever youthful. Just like a plastic rose.” He continues as he intertwines his hands together and smiles dissonantly at Connor’s confused expression.

“What do you mean, Elijah? You gotta stop talking in riddles.” Connor replies. He just remembers that the ex-CEO always either talks in riddles or annoyingly manic. Elijah Kamski is such a difficult individual.

“Chloe is not human. She’s an android I just finished.” Elijah answers shortly as Chloe shows up with their lunch on a tray in her small hands, “Thank you, dear.” Chloe smiles at the ex-CEO as an answer before she left them alone again.

“Wait what? She’s an android?” Connor is losing his mind at this rate. First, Elijah Kamski is a sea witch and formerly a dolphin merman? Second, both Hank and Elijah know each other? And lastly, Chloe is an android Elijah made?! What the heck is happening!?

“You can say she’s…ah, a small project of mine. Now that I have all the free time, I thought that instead of wasting my long life doing nothing, why not make something that the humans will lose the mind over it? Something…ah, something that’s beautifully perfect and walk alongside with them?” Elijah smirks as he grabs his glass of lemonade and sips it calmly. “Merfolks can never walk along side with them on the land, after all. And I’m sure both of you and Sere know about it by now. That’s why I decided to do this small project of mine. A creation that can be adaptable in both elements.”

“What do you have in mind, Elijah? Why are we talking about this?” Connor asks in suspicion and cautiously. Elijah is a difficult individual, after all. Nobody really knows what the man is thinking.

“I just want to brag a bit, that’s all!” Elijah grins and starts eating his lunch, “You’re fun to mess with, after all! Between all humans I encounter, you’re the most intriguing one. A lost man with two masks, yet both are almost indistinguishable from each other. And the man himself doesn’t know the differences between the two and keep on walking with no direction in mind.” He looks up straight to Connor’s brown orbs, “Unless you found your way and which masks is truly yours by now.” He finishes with a smirk.

Connor is silent while looking back to Elijah’s blue eyes. Unlike Hank and Chloe’s blue eyes, Elijah’s blue eyes glint in lively cold and enigmatic flame. A glint that is beautifully fragile, but also strongly passionate. Just like the cold side of the ocean. The very same eyes his mother had every time she looked at Connor until the day of the accident, turning the beautiful eyes into plain and dead marbles that sometimes still haunts him.

“Oh, and about that mermaid,” Elijah changes the subject and sips his lemonade again, “she was a lovely lady. I wish I could save her, but I could do nothing against a whole department full of eager human scientists. All I can do is just giving her a memorial by putting her face on Chloe.” He continues forlornly as he turns to look at the sea.

“How shameful of me, letting one of my people to be humans’ science object.” The ex-CEO softly mumbles, so soft that Connor almost didn’t hear him.

“…That’s why you left the company, right?” Connor asks, “You’re guilty, that’s why you left and built Chloe.”

“More or less, yes.”

“But why didn’t you do something about the mermaid’s body?”

“Humans are fickle creature, Connor. You know it more than me because you used to be in that department. Why didn’t _you_ do anything about it instead of continuously observing her for a simple curiosity about us when the head department ordered you to?”

Connor is silent by that as a sharp pang of guilt pierces his chest.

“But don’t worry. I’m not blaming you. You’re just doing your job, after all. That’s why I call you here, because I want to help you to stop Cyber Fauna. And if you’re worried, she’s not Hank’s late mate. Hank lost his mate more than thirty years ago. She was eaten by starving sailors and they all died in the end because of ‘Mermaid’s Curse’ that every sea witches automatically have, causing scales to slowly grow out on all over their bodies and fell out until no more is left.” Elijah explains calmly, as if he didn’t just describing the most horrifying death Connor ever heard.

“Hank was very loyal to her, you know. And when I heard that you’re his new mate, I was genuinely surprised that he has moved on after over than thirty years living in the sea, swimming along with no direction in mind. A lost soul… Yes, I suppose just like you.” He softly chuckles, “Two unfortunate lost souls and somehow met each other despite from a different side of the world to save each other. How poetic.”

“An innocent soul and a sinful soul. Meeting each other at a very fateful time and sharing each other’s cores. Which one will prevail, I wonder? The innocence or the sin?” Elijah chuckles at that, “Do you believe in fate, Connor? Or maybe destiny?” He asks suddenly with interest in his eyes.

“No, honestly I don’t.” Connor answers calmly and continues on eating his food, “But somehow… I start to think that maybe…maybe meeting Hank is a destiny the higher ups gave to me. And it’s up to me to accept and act for the given destiny, or not.” He finishes.

Elijah just stares at Connor before he smiles enigmatically while sipping his drink.

“You’re an intriguing one, Connor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> elijah kamski is a smart asshole and i love him
> 
> because he's smart
> 
> i love smart people
> 
> and his merman name, Stal', basically means 'steel', because of his dolphin part's color.
> 
> maybe if i got time, i wanna write the side characters' one-shots lmao
> 
> oh! and this lovely au fic will soon come to an end! are you excited? i am!


	10. Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Judgment Day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late update! i was so busy with college that i almost missed mermay by not posting this, but worry not! i will continue it and actually finish it!
> 
> also i did a lot of research with this one and my opera is full of court-related tabs, so i hope i did pretty well on it
> 
> i said, a visual communication design college student with zero knowledge on law related things, trying to write a fucking court scene in a fic lmao

Connor knocks on Markus’ office door, waiting for a moment until Markus replied with ‘come on in!’ that he gently enters the big office. Inside, besides Markus, there are North and Josh standing in front of Markus’ desk. They both turn their heads to look at him, serious expression plastered on their faces before immediately turn into joy.

“Connor! Long time no see. How have you been?” North asks with a smile as Connor approaches them and returns her smile warmly.

“I’m doing great. The paid-leave I took sure does improve my health a bit. And, ah, I spend it along with my significant-other too, so it’s great.” Connor answers.

“Oh? Who’s the lucky person, Connor? Is it a new one this time?” Josh asks and Connor nods shyly.

“His name is Hank…just Hank. He’s grumpy looking, but he’s actually a sweetheart. He loves paper books and he has the shiniest silver hair along with the most beautiful blue eyes I ever seen.” Connor answers, cheeks redden a bit.

“Oh wow he’s so love-struck and glowing with positivity. This Hank guy must be a real deal.” North says out, slightly surprised on how happy Connor looks. Heck, the younger man even glows!

“Good for you then, Connor. How long have you two been together?” Josh asks in interest.

“Almost a month by now. I met him back in August and now we live together—oh.” Connor stops his sentence as North and Josh look surprised and gets a bit flustered when Josh is smirking while North is giving him suspicious look.

“We haven’t done anything more than taking a bath together, if you’re worried about it.” Connor assures North.

“As long as he’s not forcing himself on you, I’m fine with it.” North huffs calmly.

“So what’s wrong, Connor? Something important to report, I suppose.” Markus asks out after quietly watching his coworkers and friends talking.

“Ah yes. The preparation to put Cyber Fauna down is done. It’s up to you when will we officially report this to the court.” Connor reports determinedly, “Caleb will be our attorney for this case. I already give him the details about the case and he agreed to help, but because I’m his relative, I can’t be the one that report this to the court.” He continues as he gives the files to Markus.

“I understand, Connor. You’ve done enough already. Thank you.” Markus replies with a nod as he accepts the files, “How’s Hank? Is he available to be the witness?” He asks. Both North and Josh turn to look at him in surprise before turning to Connor with the same expression.

“He seems eager for it. He’s been splashing water here and there while saying how excited he is to go to the court and bring Cyber Fauna down.” Connor answers with a smile, remembering last night’s funny scene, “And we need a pretty big portable aquarium for him if we’re going to take him to the court later.” He adds.

“Whoa whoa whoa! Hold on for a minute there!” North exclaims out suddenly, taking each men in the room’s attentions, “’Hank’? It’s the same Hank that’s your boyfriend now, am I wrong? Why do you need an aquarium for him to go to the court?” She asks.

“He is the same. And considering you both are away while I took a paid-leave, I suppose you don’t know what is actually happening.” Connor points out as he puts a hand under his chin, scratching it for a moment while thinking. “But now that you two are back, why don’t we all come to my home and meet Hank? He’s been pretty curious about you both for a while now, actually. I’m sure he’ll like you both.” He adds with a smile.

“…I’m so confused by all of these, but sure.” Josh replies.

So, the Heads of Jericho eventually follow Connor along to his home that night. Connor is a bit nervous. This is like when he told his parents that he’s actually pansexual and he’s ready to get his father’s rage. But this time, he’s just nervous about what North think. He knows she won’t judge him, but North is like a big sister he never had, so he’s a bit tense on her opinion for his choice.

“I’m home, Sumo, Cookie.” Connor greets as both approaches him when he first opens the front door, “How’s Hank? You didn’t give him trouble, do you?” Sumo barks and jumps to Connor while Cookie meows loudly and rubs into him. Connor chuckles at this, “Okay, you both must be hungry.” He says and turns his head to the rest of Jericho, “You all can come in. Just make yourself at home while I feed these two beasts.” He tells them and walks to the kitchen to grab Cookie’s wet cat food.

The rest of Jericho walks into the house calmly. Josh closes the front door gently as North starts to look around in curiosity, wondering out where this ‘Hank’ person is if he lived together with Connor but he didn’t even come to greet the youngest of them all. Both Simon and Markus just laugh inside at North’s serious expression.

“Alright guys. You ready to meet Hank?” Connor asks as he returns back to the others, who still awkwardly standing in the living room.

“Why didn’t he come and greet you?” North asks.

“If he could, he would greet me every time I came back home.” Connor replies with an amused smile, “Come on. He’s upstairs, probably reading a book.” He continues and walks upstairs along with the rest of Jericho behind him to Connor’s room, which confused them a bit but didn’t ask Connor about it.

“Hank? I’m back.” Connor says as he approaches the private bathroom in his room and peeks in.

“Konnorr! Welcome back. You got visitors? I can smell both Markhus and Saimon are here, but there are two new smells.” Hank greets back as he puts the paper book away and pulls himself closer to Connor.

“Yes, and they want to meet you.” Connor replies and peeks out back to the others, “Come on in. He’s waiting for you guys.” He says and the others comply, walking towards the bathroom and peer in first.

When both North and Josh see Hank, they both open their mouths in disbelief.

“Merman!? Connor, you’re dating a merman?!” North asks out in disbelief.

“Yes. This is Hank. He’s a merman I saved months ago and the reason why I took a paid-leave for months is to take care of him. Then we both eventually fell in love with each other and now we’re dating.” Connor answers, a bit nervous on how she will react.

“What!? How come you never told me about the merman, Markus!?” North turns to Markus, who just smiles and chuckles in amusement.

“Well, you know now, right?” Markus replies coolly.

“Well, this is indeed surprising.” Josh comments out as he crouches down near the massive bathtub he ever seen and Hank is watching his every move. Just like a predator watching every move his prey is making. And no wonder Connor says that he’s grumpy looking. Hank is a big fellow, along with silver hair and beard on his face, his eyebrows seem to knit close to each other and he has bright blue eyes, his mouth seems to be put in a frown and Josh can see that it can’t fully closed because of rows of sharp teeth inside his mouth.

“What merman is he, Connor?” Josh asks as he turns to look at Connor.

“He’s Shortfin Mako mershark.” Connor answers calmly and strokes Hank’s wet silver hair away that sticks to his face as he crouches down to get closer to Hank. Hank closes his eyes and is enjoying the gentle touches Connor gives him.

“He’s more like a dog than a shark, though.” North finally comments out as she crouches down next to Josh and Hank is watching her every move.

“You know, you guys can keep on talking like I’m not here and can’t understand what you guys are saying. It’s not I can understand you anyway.” Hank finally quips out in slight annoyance as he rolls his eyes, his tail flops in the bathtub water with the same sentiment.

“Oh wow he’s one sassy merman, isn’t he?” North laughs, “I like him already, so I approve your choice, Connor.” She adds and Connor just rolls his eyes in amusement.

“Hank, this is North and Josh.” Connor introduces out, gesturing to both North and Josh.

“North and Josh. Got it.” Hank nods, “Are you guys here to watch me?” He asks.

“No, we’re just here to meet Connor’s new boyfriend. I was surprised that he’s dating a merman, that’s all.” North answers with a shrug, “What do you like from Connor, exactly?” She asks curiously.

“Do you want the short and honest answer or the long and absolutely honest answer?”

“Your choice.”

“Long one then. Well, Connor look so goofy and weird voice, but I love them all because it’s Connor’s. He’s sweet and nice, but at the same time very passionate over things he’s into. He’s a try hard and stubborn. He likes my hair and my beard, along with the rolls in my stomach and my chest. He has brown eyes and hair, and I used to hate the color, but because of Connor, everything changed. He’s human, but because of him, he made me realize that not every human are bad. He has the nicest laugh I ever heard. He’s doing his best to teach me about the world and indulge my requests. He forgave me when I got drunk and marked him. He scolds me sometimes if I’m being too stubborn on wanting something, but he still buying it for me anyway. He’s always thinking about my safety and never about himself, and I’m really worried about his selflessness will kill him someday. I can’t walk on the land or even stay out from water for a long period of time, after all. So I always worried every time he’s away from home. If I can, I’ll keep him in the tub forever or pull him into the ocean with me, but that’s impossible because that’s not love, but ego like Connor told me. All I can do is just hoping for the best and for his safety to return back home.”

The bathroom went silent as the humans listen to the merman spouting out his love and admiration to Connor, who’s been covering his red and hot face.

“Oh wow he’s also really love-struck. I can’t believe a guy like Hank exists. A merman too, nonetheless.” North whistles out, impressed by Hank’s long confession. “Well, I suppose I can trust you then.” She huffs out and smiles.

“…are you testing my love for Connor?” Hank asks, finally realizing the true intention of North’s question.

“She sure is, Hank. We also want to know how deep your love for Connor is, and we’re glad that your love is as deep as Mariana Trench, and not knee-deep.” Simon replies with a smile, “Connor is a good man, but he keeps on bleeding out. He needs someone to stop him from bleeding out. Now that you’re there for Connor, we all can sigh in relief.”

“You may not be able to stay side by side with Connor while he’s outside, you can still wait here and be his home. Isn’t that right, Mr. ‘Red-Faced’?” Markus quips out in amusement as every pair of eyes turn to Connor, who seems ready to dig a hole and jump into it.

Hank just chuckles and pries off Connor’s hands that are still covering his face gently. He pulls Connor’s face closer to his and nuzzles his face into Connor’s gently. Connor lets out a short huff and smiles warmly.

The others smile at both of them before decided to leave them be as they leave the bedroom.

“You think we should celebrate this?” North asks.

“Should we? This is Connor’s home; we can’t just throw a party without his permission.” Josh reasons out.

“Pfft! I’m sure he’s okay with it as long as we tidy it all up later! Besides, we also gonna put Cyber Fauna down for good after this! You’re going to report this to the court ASAP, right Markus?” North turns to Markus, who nods with a smile.

“Yes. As soon as we get to finish this mess, the better it is. This is also for Connor and Hank’s sakes too, after all. Both of them are here because of the same source, but they found each other and found strength on each other.” Markus says.

“Well, the boss says yes, so let’s do pizza party!” North takes out her phone and walks away to dial the pizza place.

After a while, the pizza came (North bought five boxes of pizza with various toppings based on everyone’s favorites) and Connor finally emerges out from his room back down to the living room.

“Oh, Connor c’mere! I bought pizzas for you and your fishy partner!” North exclaims out as she takes a slice and eats it.

“You guys are having a pizza party right under my roof? And without my blessing too?” Connor asks in amusement with a brow raised up and a hand on his hip.

“Come on, don’t be such a party-pooper. I paid it all for you guys so we can get a party for your dating life and Cyber Fauna’s future doom!” North replies with a grin and the others just shake their heads in amusement.

“But we don’t know yet if we’re going to win or not.” Connor argues back, but sits down next to Simon and grabs a slice anyway, “Pineapple on pizza? Really, North?” He chuckles out as he takes a bite.

“What? I like it because the pineapple won’t bite my tongue back. Haven’t you realized eating too many pineapples will make your tongue all numb?” North argues back.

“I do, only on theory. Unfortunately Hank can’t eat foods or beverages with high acidic substance in it, so he can’t try it too.” Connor replies back, “And oh, are you guys staying or…?”

“I think we’ll go back later.” Simon answers and Markus nods.

“Me too.” Josh brings his hand up as he eats his pizza slice.

“Same. Don’t want to disturb your lovey-dovey moment with your partner after all.” North says as she grabs an unopened box of pizza, “Here. Take this and go back to him. He must be hungry, right? You left him alone in there all day, after all.” She pushes the box into Connor’s hands.

Of course, Connor did not leave Hank without breakfast and lunch before he left for work. He put Hank’s meals on a shelf he and his brothers made weeks ago so if Sumo or Cookie came for a visit, they won’t put their paw into the food or steal it. It happened for a few times after all.

“We’ll tidy these all up later before we left, so don’t worry.” Simon adds with a smile.

Connor just nods at that. He stands up and walks back up to Hank, who’s reading a book with both Cookie and Sumo accompanying him. Hank smiles when Connor walks into the bathroom with the box of pizza in hands, while both Sumo and Cookie seem to get distracted by the smell of pizza and start to get fussy for the pizza.

“Sumo, Cookie, no. This is not for you. It’s for me and Hank. Come on, stay away from the pizza.” Connor scolds both of them, who barks and meows at him, but comply anyway and walk out from the room. “North bought boxes of pizza, and this one is for us.” He says as he sits down on the floor near the bathtub frame and Hank scoots closer after he puts the book away.

“What pizza is it?” Hank asks in interest and sniffs the unopened pizza box, “It smells like cheese, fish, and some kind of meat.” He adds.

“Maybe it is.” Connor replies as he opens the box. And sure it is; it’s a half-half pizza of both cheesy fish and cheesy meats.

Each of them grabs a slice of their portions and eats in silence. Sometimes Connor stops to wipe the tomato sauce on Hank’s cheek, but it didn’t stop him from eating anyway. Hank is starting to have more preferences on junk foods, and Connor can’t help but worried about Hank’s health.

“Do you want to drink anything, Hank?” Connor asks as they finally finished their pizza and he washes his hands in the sink.

“I want cold water.” Hank answers with a grin and licks his fingertips from the pizza’s grease.

“Alright then.” Connor grabs the empty pizza box and leaves the room. He walks downstairs and he sees that the others are preparing to go home with pizza boxes in their hands.

“Hey Connor. We’re going home now. Can you give our regards to Hank?” Markus asks with a smile.

“Yes, of course. Thank you for coming and thank you North for the pizza.” Connor replies, “Be careful on your way home. None of you are drunk, are you?”

“Nah. It is still weekdays. Drinks are for weekends only.” Markus chuckles, “We’ll be going now, Connor. See you tomorrow.” And just like that, they left.

Connor walks into the kitchen and gets two glasses of cold water for Hank and himself before he returns back upstairs. He starts to think that walking up and down the stairs is an exercise enough for him, considering he didn’t swim in the sea anymore for months by now. Maybe after all of these are over and he returns Hank back into the sea, he can swim in the sea again alongside of Hank and Smotyn.

Yes, that would be a pretty nice plan for them.

**…**

It’s judgment day.

Or the day Konnorr and his friends go to the ‘court’ to try and bring down the Cyber Fauna.

Konnorr told Hank that it’s not his time to shine, as he’ll be in the court if he needs to make statements as a witness and a victim. Despite its Konnorr who did the research, Markhus and Kalebb are the ones that will talk all the time. Konnorr and the others are just going to sit and watch how it goes in the end. He said that going to the court is not a one time thing per case. It could go on for weeks, or even months, based on how smooth the procedure is…?

Something like that.

Hank waits for Konnorr to come back home. What can he do other than wait? He just hopes for the best for the case and Konnorr’s safety. After all, he knows that humans are vengeful creature. They’re the only determined creature in the whole planet if they want to achieve something, and they won’t stop until they get what they want.

Just like those humans that caught his late mate and ate her.

Hank still remembers that awful memory like it was yesterday. He leaped out of the water so high that he felt like he’s flying right into the ship. Attacking the cursed humans all his might before they all deteriorated and all of their meats slowly fell off as scales grew all over them. His pained lament as he wails out in misery with his late mate’s remains in his arms. Her once beautiful long light brown hair that painted with blue blood and her once lively green eyes shine under the moonlight in his arms. Her once warm touch became very cold and stiff in his arms.

But when he blinks, he didn’t see his late mate’s remains in his arms, but Konnorr.

Konnorr’s bright and lively brown eyes are filled with terror. Red liquid slowly trails down from the corners of his lips down to his chin along with red color blooms out from his chest. His once warm and kind touch slowly goes cold in his arms. His lips part open and wheeze out his name.

Hank jolts up awake and looks around in frantic. Bathroom. He’s in Konnorr’s bathroom. But where’s Konnorr?

“Konnorr?!” Hank calls out in panic, “Konnorr!!” He calls out again louder; dread slowly seeps in more into him. He turns his head to the digital clock on the shelf. 5:51 PM. Konnorr said that he’ll be back by five in the afternoon if everything goes well and will be continued in some other day.

But where’s Konnorr?

“Hank? What’s wrong? Are you okay? I heard you calling my name from downstairs.” Hank looks up and lo and behold, Konnorr is there, standing in the doorway of the bathroom with worried look on his face. Hank immediately leaps out from the bathtub and into Konnorr’s open arms with surprised look on his face. Konnorr falls down onto his butt as he’s unsuccessfully tries to hold Hank’s over than 200 pounds’ body weight in his arms.

“Ow ow ow… Hank…? What’s wrong?” Konnorr asks again with pure concern in his voice.

“You’re alive.” Hank croaks out in pure relief, “Bless the Sea Gods, you’re alive. You’re alive. Alive.”

“Of course I do. The court case was put on hold until next week and it’s longer than I thought because Cyber Fauna’s current CEO kept on deflecting.” Konnorr replies as he sits up properly with Hank still clinging onto him. He’s still thankful that despite of Hank’s huge figure that leaped into him, he broke no bones. “But what’s wrong, Hank? Did you get a nightmare?” He asks again.

Is it a nightmare? A memory? A future sight?

Hank doesn’t know anymore.

He’s just glad that Konnorr returned home alive.

“Do you want me to do something for you, Hank?” Konnorr asks calmly as he strokes Hank’s wet hair gently.

“…Sing me that song again.” Hank requests out softly.

“Alright. Let me put you back into the tub and I’ll sing you the song of the sea, is that okay with you?” Konnorr asks patiently and Hank nods.

Konnorr heaves Hank up along as they slowly returns to the bathroom and slips Hank back into the tub. He gently tucks Hank’s silver hair behind his ears and pecks his forehead before softly sings the song. Hank curls his fingers to Konnorr’s now wet shirt defensively; to assure himself more that Konnorr is here with him, alive and well.

After the song is finished, they both are still embracing each other. Konnorr doesn’t seem to mind, as he’s stroking Hank’s hair and back gently to calm Hank back down. After a while, Hank finally calmed down and pulls himself away from Konnorr.

“Are you feeling better now?” Konnorr asks with a smile. Hank just nods. He doesn’t trust his voice to not quivering when he answers, so he just did body gestures. “Do you want anything before I tell you some news? Maybe dinner or a glass of water?” The human asks again patiently. He shakes his head. No, he just wants Konnorr staying near him.

“Alright then. I’ll tell you the news from the court. Just like I said, the case will be continued next week, and you’ll be there as a witness and victim against Cyber Fauna along with Elijah. You’re okay with that, right?” Hank nods again.

“Just…don’t leave me.” Hank croaks out and Konnorr kisses his forehead.

“I won’t. Just tell me if you need me, alright?”

For the whole week, Hank is filled with anxiety every time Konnorr is out of his sight. But he doesn’t want to worry Konnorr, so he tries to act normal for his mate. From the novella books he read, the main character usually pushes their lover away so the lover won’t get worried, but he thinks that it’s stupid.

That’s why when they’re on their way to the court, Hank tells Konnorr about his dream.

“So you’re worried that someone will try to kill me?” Konnorr asks calmly and Hank nods.

“I…I don’t know if it’s just a nightmare of a future sight. What if it is a future sight and I just woken my magic up in the worst time possible and I lost you? I don’t want to lose my mate anymore.” Hank replies anxiously. Konnorr is staring at him before he grabs his webbed hands into his smooth hands.

“Hey, I’ll stay by your side if it makes you feel at ease more. How’s that sound?” Konnorr suggests with a warm smile. Hank just nods and didn’t let Konnorr’s hands go until Josh taps the window to get both of their attentions and tells them that they have arrived. Josh also said that they’re using back entrance because Hank will gain a lot of attentions from the Medias if they’re using front entrance. Plus, moving Hank along with a big aquarium full of water through a sea of people sounds like a disaster.

“It seems you guys have problem with our fishy friend.”

Stal’, or Elijah Kamski, gets a fucking nerve to comments with a smirk on his ugly mug, along with a beautiful blonde lady that stands loyally beside him and throws him a kind smile.

“It’s not you’re gonna help us out anyway, Stal’.” Hank growls out as he pulls himself closer to the aquarium glass, trying his best not to move around too much and making the water spills out.

“I was thinking of making you produce slime so you get to stay on land for hours without water constantly soaking you, and I’ll give it to you for free, even! Of course, it’s only a one time thing.” Stal’ shrugs with a smile.

Ugh.

“Are you patronizing me?” Hank asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I just want to help and get this all over with faster than it should be. And you,” Stal’ points his index finger to him, “is basically a burden with this stupid aquarium full of water that has chances of spilling out everywhere.” He continues as he moves his index finger down to the aquarium.

Hank stays quiet as he frowns and submerges half of his face into the water, bubbling out air in frustration. Believe it or not, Hank actually agrees with Stal’’s words. He knows that his inability to stay out on land without water constantly soaking him is a burden to everyone else. And unlike most merfolks, he doesn’t produce body slime to make him stay moisturized while he’s on land other than in his gills.

“Fine. Do me your magic.” Hank grumbles out.

“Alright. Chloe?” Stal’ opens up a palm and the blonde lady, Chloe, puts a medium-sized tub onto the palm, “Connor?” He calls out and Konnorr, who’s been silently watching both of them bantering, walks closer to him. “Put the snail’s mucus on him. I hope you’re not squeamish with slimes.” He says as he pushes the tub into Konnorr’s hands.

“Did you really just give me a tub of mucus and not actually just use your magic on Hank?” Konnorr asks in annoyance while Hank shoots him a betrayal look.

“Your choice.” Stal’ replies with a shrug. This fucking sea witch…

In the end, Konnorr applied the snail mucus all over Hank’s body (except his face and ears) and they all ready to go to the courtroom as Hank is put on a wheelchair and he’s wearing a long black robe with a hood that did good on hiding his tail. He never wears clothes before, and it feels very weird but not uncomfortable. And both wheelchair and robe actually custom made to support on his back fin, so he thanked Konnorr and his friends for that nice gesture.

“Alright, how do I do my statement thing when the judges want my statements? Also, when should I reveal my identity?” Hank asks while they’re on their way to the courtroom.

“Just answer it politely and address the judges as ‘Your Honor’ will do just fine. I don’t know when you should do it, but it’s up to you as long as it didn’t offend the judges. Don’t worry, I’ll stay by your side and try to give you a heads up.” Konnorr answers calmly as they finally enter the courtroom.

Suffocating.

That’s the first thing that came across his mind when they finally enter the courtroom. There are humans everywhere and the air is filled with human odors. Unlike Konnorr’s nice smell, the place is filled with mixed human odors that it hurts his nose and head a bit, but he knows that it’s probably also affected by his anxiousness. Hank can feel eyes are on him as Konnorr wheels him forward and Josh walks beside them, while both Stal’ and Chloe are walking behind them. But the eyes don’t lasts that long on them and Hank is relieved by that.

Hank looks up and sees that the judge and the juries are not here yet, but he sees that the Cyber Fauna representatives are already here along with the other Jericho members. It’s not hard to spot them, anyway. They wear annoying white uniform with Cyber Fauna’s blue triangle bullshit that he hates so much. Ugh, they all looked like snobby bastards and ugly as heck.

He sniffs the air once more and smells something very distinct from human odors. He doesn’t know what it is, but he hopes it’s nothing.

After a while of waiting, the judge and the juries finally came and take their seats on a pretty tall podium thing and the trial starts.

If Hank can be honest, this trial thing is both annoying and suffocating. Annoying; because the Cyber Fauna shitheads keep on deflecting. And suffocating; because the air is getting thicker with tension and human odors that are getting stronger than before. Not to mention there are so many bullshits the humans are talking that he doesn’t really get it.

Though he has to admit, Kalebb looks pretty cool when he’s serious while doing his job.

He coughs a bit as he starts to feel his gills are dry. Konnorr, bless his soul, immediately understand and applies the snail mucus around his gills. Hank silently thanked his mate and turns back to the trial in front of them. Right now, Stal’ is giving his testimony. Even when he stands at the witness podium thing beside the judge, he looks as smug as ever.

And now, it’s his turn.

Wait, how is he gonna stand on the podium thing!?

“I apologize for the inconvenience, Your Honor, but Hank, the witness, is unable to stand in the witness stand for personal reasons. May I stay by his side to assist him considering he is unable to stand?” Konnorr asks steadily to the judge.

“You may assist him.” The judge replies firmly. Konnorr nods and wheels Hank forward to the witness stand (now he knows what it called) calmly. He glances to the Cyber Fauna’s representative and sees a middle-aged white man is glaring at him along with his attorney sitting beside him, who just stares at him in slight interest. Probably because of his current appearance that makes him look like a weird hobo or a cult member.

Konnorr offers him a microphone and he accepts it while his mate stands loyally besides him. He looks on every human that stares at him in interest and some of the audiences’ bored look. This seems like a good time to reveal his identity.

“First of, thank you, Your Honor, for letting Konnorr to assist me. I very appreciate your kindness for that.” Hank starts steadily, “And I, Hank, stand—or sit—here as a witness—and a victim—against Cyber Fauna’s cruelty.” He takes a deep breath and lets it out to calm him down a bit as Kalebb stands and looks at him.

“Hank. I know you were a victim and a witness of Cyber Fauna’s cruelty. Would you please elaborate more about it?” Kalebb asks.

“You see, I was just swimming around in the sea with my seal companion. I was just minding my own business, until these boats with blue triangle insignias on it came and starts emitting very annoying sound into the sea. It’s disturbing the fishes around me and hurts my ears and head.” Hank continues as he looks straight at the CF’s representative’s eyes along with the attorney’s. They look annoyed. Good. “It keeps on going for days. I can’t stand it anymore, so I decided to leave. But before I managed to leave, someone shot a harpoon onto my back. It was very painful and sent me in a panic. So I quickly left the place in immense pain with the harpoon still on my back. Then I blacked out and got stranded at a beach. That’s where Konnorr found and saved my life.” He finishes.

“If I may, Your Honor,” The CF’s attorney objects as he stands, “I would like to question the witness’ testimony. May I have your permission?”

“You may proceed.”

“Mr. Hank, was it? You were saying that you’re also the victim in this case? What makes you say that?” The attorney asks, “As far as we know, Cyber Fauna won’t even hurt an animal for the sake of science, let alone a human.” He continues with a smirk.

“Because I am not a human.” Hank answers firmly, pulling his hood back and pulling up his robe to show off his inhuman characteristics. He can see that the humans in the courtroom, minus his friends, immediately bulged out their eyes. He slaps down his tail to the cold floor loudly as he smirks at the humans’ disbelief expressions before the audiences are getting worked up along with the CF representatives and the juries, and he winces when flash of cameras are flashing right at him. The judge quickly uses her hammer thing to bring order back in the room.

“First of all, Your Honor, I apologize for the drama I brought. I hope this did not hinder the trial despite of me not a fully human.” Hank apologizes as he turns to the judge and cranks his neck a bit to try to see the judge’s reaction.

“It is acceptable. You’re still the plaintiff’s witness and victim against the defendant. You may still proceed.” Bless this judge for still letting him included in this case. “Defense?” The CF’s attorney seems to be still in disbelief, but snaps out of it and decides to argue back against his testimony.

“If you really are a victim, is there any solid proof that the harpoon really struck you?” The attorney asks.

“We do have evidences in a form of photos.” Kalebb returns as he grabs a file and shows up a photo of Hank’s scarred back and a zoomed in one, along with a photo of the harpoon and another one with black light. He then starts explaining things about the substance in the harpoon’s tip of the black light photo is Hank’s blood that had dried up and became invisible to the naked eye.

Hank smells Konnorr’s body odor and gently slips his webbed hand into the human’s, who returns it tightly and he can feel that Konnorr is nervous and trembling a bit, but overall he’s okay. He wishes he can intertwine their hands together like those human couples in those comic books Kalebb lent him, but the webbings are not letting them to do that. But it’s fine. As long as Konnorr is here and he can still feel his smooth and warm hand, he doesn’t mind it.

In the end, Hank and Konnorr return back to the seat after he’s done telling his testimony. The trial continues, but he doesn’t care about it anymore. He just wants to hurry up and end it all so he and Konnorr can go back home.

He’s still anxious about his dream actually going to come true. That’s why he tries to make Konnorr to stay by his side, or when Konnorr wants to go to the toilet and he wants him to bring him along.

For example, like, now.

“Hank, I just need a few minutes and I’ll be back, alright?” Konnorr assures him softly with a smile.

“No! Take me with you or Josh along! What if my dream actually came true? I don’t want that!” Hank replies with hushed tone.

“Hank, we’ve talk about this a few seconds ago. Cyber Fauna is not that low to shoot me while they’re in trial. It will be easy for them to lose the trial.”

“You don’t know that for sure! Humans are unpredictable, Kon. I can’t gamble your life for that.”

“Hank. Trust me, alright? I’ll be back in five minutes, and if I didn’t, you can ask Josh to push you to the toilet to get me, how’s that sound?”

Nnghh… Hank can’t refuse Konnorr’s suggestion when the human uses his puppy eyes on him. He doesn’t know if his mate actually recognizes that skill of his to make Hank all gooey and compliant towards Konnorr’s words, but it can be assured that it’s working.

“Fine.” Hank grumbles in defeat. Konnorr smiles brightly at him and caresses his cheek lightly before he stands up and leaves the courtroom.

Hank huffs out and back on watching the trial. Now he understands why half of the audiences are all look pretty bored. This trial is both boring and fiery. It’s boring because he mostly knows nothing about attorney and trial bullshits. And it’s fiery because the attorneys are spouting out shits with condescending voices. He wonders how long will it keeps going?

After a while, Konnorr finally return and sits down back next to Hank, giving him a knowing look. Hank doesn’t care about that look; he’s just relieved that Konnorr is back, still alive and kicking.

Eventually, the trial reaches the peak and the trial is on hold for a few hours. Konnorr explains that the juries are deliberating, possibly picking their sides or something; Hank doesn’t really understand how all of these works anyway. He just hopes Jericho wins this so they can celebrate it and both of he and Konnorr can go back home in peace.

Hank calmly eats his…what’s it called again? Oh yeah, kimbap or gimbap. He specifically asked Konnorr to make it for them to eat while the trial is going. He first asked for sandwiches, but when he read about this Korean food is actually healthier, he changed his request to this instead of sandwiches. Plus, it’s easier to eat and Konnorr is okay with it, saying that it’s been awhile since the last time he made the rolled rice thing, but he succeeded on making it anyway.

And considering Hank doesn’t know how to use chopsticks, Konnorr made his kimbap still in roll form and not cut to slices like Konnorr’s.

Many humans are looking at Hank in interest, but when Hank looked back, the humans quickly averted their eyes away. Good thing he’s still wearing the long black robe, because if he didn’t, he’ll be super conscious about him being basically naked in front of these humans.

Still, the amount of attention he gets (along with pretty obvious whispers) is enough to make him hide behind Konnorr and holds onto his dress shirt timidly. But that actually made the humans react even more and he receives plenty of expressions from them. Most are blushing and twinkling in even more interest, some are confused, while very small people are disgusted.

When the trial starts again, everyone is sitting silently and in orderly way. This time, the air is tense and suffocating, even more than before. Hank gently wraps his hands around Konnorr’s twitching hand. He knows how important this announcement is for his mate, as he’s been working hard for this very moment for years.

Hank doesn’t really care about his people’s lives, as he knew that they all are safe enough deep in the sea and no humans are able to reach them without the water pressure crushing them.

Speaking of his people…

…

…Hank will try to tell Konnorr about it later.

“Has the Jury come to a verdict?” The Judge asks and Konnorr tightens his grip on Hank’s hand.

“We have, Your Honor.” Hank returns the gesture reassuringly.

“In the case of Jericho Fauna Conservation Versus Cyber Fauna under accusation of their cruelty against marine lives, what is your decision?”

“We, the Jury, have decided Cyber Fauna…is guilty of their cruel acts towards marine lives.”

As fast as it came, the courtroom is filled with flashes of cameras and Konnorr lungs at him into a hug. Hank smiles as he hugs Konnorr back and nuzzle into Konnorr’s hair in return. He can hear Konnorr’s sharp wet inhale and shaky wet exhale. He can hear the rest of Jericho’s cheers and the Judge is hammering her hammer down to conclude the result of the trial.

All the way outside, Konnorr is smiling nonstop despite flashes of cameras are blinding them.

“You did it, Konnorr. You finally won the war. All of you.” Hank says fondly as he takes his hand gently and Konnorr nods as he holds Hank’s webbed hand back happily.

“It’s all thanks to you, Hank. You made it possible.” Konnorr replies with a grin and gently kisses the back of Hank’s hand. The merman chuckles at that and pulls Konnorr’s hand to the side of his face.

“What can I say? You saved me first, so I returned it and I found love too on the way.” Hank returns affectionately and nuzzles into the warm palm, not really caring that the Medias are still taking pictures and noting shits about them. Let the humans know! He doesn’t care! Let all of them know that merfolks can date humans too if they stop being dickheads!

And it seems Konnorr feels the same about it as he chuckles happily.

“You’re such a romantic. I let you read too many romance novellas.”

“But it’s true!”

“Yes, I figure that much.”

“Let’s go home, Konnorr. Then you gotta teach me how to write!”

“Of course, Hank. Let us go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man, can you believe this story will end soon? just a couple more and its done!
> 
> maybe lmao
> 
> please feed me with your scream so i can finish this fic

**Author's Note:**

> Based on my thread about Mershark!Hank and Marine-Biologist!Connor's first meeting: https://twitter.com/eriapril3/status/1083274400843976704
> 
> and also based on my thirst for merman!hank because i already love that bear, why not combined it with something else i love?
> 
> Come bother me on twitter!


End file.
